The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the performance of agricultural sectors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries using selected criteria, to identify the deficiencies in agricultural policies, to explore competitive advantages and to guide food and nutrition policies. The analyses of this research use the secondary of time series data between the years 1967‒ 2016 from 10 countries including; Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam which are the member of ASEAN. This research uses the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method and the data used for the mentioned countries include the following criteria; total agricultural production value of the land, self-sufficiency of animal products criteria, self-sufficiency of crop products criteria, rural population rate, greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, and value of foreign trade in agricultural products. The result of proximity coefficients calculated with the TOPSIS method, which according to the number of proximity and maximum benefit analysis should be done according to the order of preference. It is stated that Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia were the most successful countries in the agricultural policy performance in 1967. As for last decades, Malaysia became the most successful country in agricultural policy performance. We can infer from the results that Malay industrial sector triggered the agricultural sector by supplying financial investment atmosphere.

In rural Kazakhstan, the credit and insurance services are limited and the state support is weak. The main goal of this study is to contribute to the literature on financial literacy in emerging economies, namely, the effect of financial literacy on saving rates of rural population. Being well educated not always means to be financial literate and make efficient decisions regarding one’s own finance. People with a lower formal education level but with better experience in consuming financial products could be better prepared for making financial decisions including those related to savings. In this paper other socio-economic determinants of saving rates were taken into account, such as an income level, family size and an employment status. This research was carried out in Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan, and the data collection took place in spring 2014. In total, 405 households were surveyed. Results of the analysis show that if a respondent gives at least one correct answer, it positively affects the saving rates as well as one can observe that the higher the financial literacy level, the higher are the saving rates. Availability of state supported financial education programs for rural people will significantly contribute to the financial literacy improvement.

The article deals with the problem of local mobility of peasants in Vilnius Governorate in the nineteenth century. To solve the problem, statistical-demographical data from the “Memory Books” permanently issued by the Tsarist Russian government was used. Pure demographic data brings little information, unless it is properly mathematically processed. Such processing leads to the discovering of new proportions concerning inhabitants, villages and farmsteads. Such proportions are related to the administrative territorial unit under investigation and show how many people reside in a farmstead and how many farmsteads are comprised in a village. In the course of time, numbers of villages and farmsteads change, and these numbers show the numbers of people taking part in local mobility of inhabitants. The higher are changes in villages and farmsteads, the higher is mobility of inhabitants.