The article deals with the issue of rural development in Poland. The aim of the article is to determine the dynamics of change in the level of socio-economic development of rural communes in Poland (NUTS 5) in the years 2004 – 2014 through verification of the hypothesis of the existence of beta-convergence. The beta-convergence approach is verified by econometric modelling techniques. The statistical data came from the Local Data Bank (LDB) of the Central Statistical Office (CSO). Based on the analysis of changes in the development level of the rural areas in Poland it was stated that there is convergence. However, the strength of the convergence process is different depending on the dimensions of development. It reported a strong relationship between the average growth rate of aggregate indicators relating to the financial dimension. In other dimensions, such as labour market, living conditions, health and social care, education, demography and culture, it showed the occurrence of slow convergence processes.

The paper analyses sustainable development situation in Šiauliai and Telšiai counties between 2004 and 2013 and compares it with respective situation in the Republic of Lithuania. In order to provide an integrated assessment of the situation, the analysis employed the method of calculating sustainable development indices, close to the Compass method, often applied in research practice all over the world. The calculated indices of economic and social development and environmental state in Šiauliai and Telšiai counties and in Lithuania have shown changes in sustainable development during the period of 10 years. Integrated sustainable development indices, obtained by summing up economic and social development and environmental state indicators demonstrated that sustainable development situation in Šiauliai and Telšiai counties and the Republic of Lithuania between 2004 and 2013 was very similar. Due to the first EU investments between 2005 and 2007, a huge improvement of economic and social situation took place, environmental protection also improved. However, the global economic crisis of 2008 – 2010 decreased the sustainable development of Lithuania and the mentioned counties. In 2011 – 2012, the sustainable development situation started improving again, however, not in such big proportions as in 2005 – 2007. Recession in 2013, in fact, brought the level of sustainable development of Lithuania, Šiauliai and Telšiai counties down to the level of 2004. Conclusions provide generalisation of the research outcomes and possible sustainable development trends for Šiauliai and Telšiai counties.

Challenges for modern society encourage the interest of how the regions could increase opportunities to accelerate social and economic development and reach the level of developed regions. Especially it is important for rural areas. There is a search for new answers (ideas and innovations) on creating a competitive advantage of regions. Seeking for a better systematic (not chaotic) result of innovative activities various organizations (even working in different sectors) are tied up with other organisations by tight links in their regional innovation system. The collaboration among different organizations is argued to be the main axis for the stimulation of innovativeness. Besides, all innovative activities must be reinforced by organizations’ absorptive capacity (i.e. abilities to access external knowledge, anchor and diffuse it) that leads to innovativeness. This article argues the theoretical and empirical approach of how the regional development could be accelerated by empowered innovativeness as a capacity of participants of a regional innovation system. Lithuania as a modern country and the EU member declares the importance of the reduction of internal regional disparities. Consequently, the analysis of a particular regional innovation system, i.e. Šiauliai region, allows disclosing the regional peculiarities and weaknesses of its innovative activities limiting the development process. The goal of this article is to reveal the current situation of innovativeness in Šiauliai region and draw the directions of its empowerment for further regional development. The article consists of two parts: theoretical insights and explanation of methodological approach; and the presentation and discussion of quantitative research results.

The European Union livestock sector is a major player of the agricultural economy and its land use, and livestock is one of the fastest-growing sectors in agriculture, potentially presenting opportunities for economic growth and poverty reduction in rural areas. In Latvia, the year 2014 was quite difficult for the dairy industry both due to Russia’s embargo on dairy product import and low milk purchase prices and due to concerns that milk quotas had been exceeded. It is therefore important that cows are healthy and no additional losses are suffered from mastitis. Mastitis is a complex disease involving many factors, which is mainly caused by bacteria and there is no simple model that encompasses different possible aspects. Therefore, the research aim is to assess the effects of mastitis in cow herds for farms in Latvia. The research study proceeds in two stages or phases: firstly, to review the scientific literature on mastitis problems and solutions to the problems in other countries, secondly, to survey dairy farms of various sizes in the regions of Latvia in order to examine the real situation concerning mastitis and its effects on the economy of farms. A survey results of 74 farms in Latvia revealed that 90.5% of the farms had problems with mastitis. Consequently, if sick cattle are timely culled, it is possible to keep the herd milk yield without a significant drop. In case of cows with mastitis, farms suffer losses from smaller quantities of milk produced depending on farming intensity and due to cows culled with mastitis.

Considering the deficiencies of social services for the elderly in governmental institutions and growing demand of ensuring services in rural areas, the paper aims to assess the needs of elderly people for social services in the selected rural areas and to propose the social services’ development opportunities in terms of domestic help for the elderly. The social services facilitate support to elderly dependents in their homes, without interrupting their relationships with the family and the community, and improving their quality of life. The survey has shown that the municipality usually satisfies only basic biological needs of old people in rural areas. In order to ensure the well-being of elderly people, a complete cooperation among governmental and non-governmental institutions is required. Development of the services should be focused on the provision of the domestic help services for elderly people who do not receive them, and the diversity of the services for those residents who receive services from the municipality. The implementation of the development project of the domestic help services would enable the elderly residents of the rural municipality to have access to the most necessary services at the required frequency and intensity, considering the recipients’ needs, thus improving the quality of life of the elderly people of local community and ensuring their dignified ageing.

Energy transition from the fossil fuel dominating to the one based on renewable energy sources (RES) takes acceleration with the internationally recognised need to stabilise the global warming. Therefore, there is a general consensus that the initiative of the wide use of RES is manifold in its nature making an impact not only on the environmental issues, but also adding to the so desired customer involvement and rural development as well. Rural dimension in reaching the EU targets should arguably be a priority as RES utilisation is decentralised in its nature. Despite the fact that EU with its main strategic documents gives a clear direction on RES utilisation through wider involvement of citizens, especially in rural places, there are certain grounds for stating that a current situation and future insights among EU Member States still differ. Lithuanian case was chosen to explore the sustainability gaps regarding the RES utilisation development in rural places. Literature review is employed to choose the most suitable way aiming to explore and evaluate the RES utilisation development in rural places regarding the sustainability issues. This article adds to understanding and evaluating the main obstacles of the well balanced RES utilisation development in rural places.

The study was undertaken to evaluate the efficiency of selection on growth performance of Menz sheep under a community-based breeding program (CBBP) from the period of 2009 – 2017. A total of 3996 lamb records (ram lambs 2025/ ewe lambs 1971) were used to evaluate the phenotypic and genetic factors affecting the growth traits of Menz sheep. REML in Wombat and General linear model on SAS (version 9.0) were used to evaluate selection efficiency for growth of Menz sheep. The least squares means and standard errors on phenotypic growth weight for birth, weaning age, six month age and yearling age were 2.58±0.004, 8.99±0.02, 13.28±0.02 and 19.94±0.06 kg, respectively. The effect of sex was significant (p<0.001) only for birth weight and no significance effect (p>0.05) was observed for weaning, six month and yearling weights. All growth traits were not affected by fixed effect of parity and birth type in this particular study. However, birth season and birth year had a great influence (p<0.0001) on all growth traits. The genetic trend on estimated breeding values (EBV) was not consistent across years and varied between sexes. The highest EBV for weaning, six month and yearling were recorded for the year 2013 and the lowest in 2009 (at weaning and six month) and 2015 (at yearling).The female EBV (at weaning, six month and yearling) was higher than male for the current (2017) and base population (2009).The responses to selection as compared to base population (2009) for birth, weaning, six month and yearling weight were – 0.00446Kg, + 0.11Kg, + 0.54Kg and + 0.75Kg respectively. This study indicates that improvement in body weight for Menz sheep through CBBP is possible; however, the response to selection varied across years and its pattern was irregular for the implemented years due to the problem on selection of breeding rams (lower availability of breeding rams) and management effect.

The objective of this study was to estimate genetic parameters of reproduction traits of pure Fogera cattle at Metekel Ranch. Metekel cattle Breeding and Improvement Ranch has so far been engaged in maintenance of Fogera cattle population outside their adapted environment (ex-situ conservation). The breeding program has two components: selection and crossbreeding. The establishment of the pure breed unit is meant for the improvement of the Fogera breed and for providing heifers to cross- breed to exotic dairy sires (by Artificial insemination). In cross breeding program; crossbred animals are produced through artificial insemination of Fogera cows with Friesian semen. Around three to six months of pregnancy, the F1 cross heifers are sold to farmers for milk production (Melaku et al., 2011a, b). Very recently the ranch started to distribute non pregnant F1 cross heifers. WOMBAT software was used to estimate genetic parameters. The variance components and heritability were estimated using a Uni-variate animal model using four models which fitted direct additive, dam genetic and permanent environmental effect as a random effect and the fixed effects (year, season, sex and parity). Parameter of age at first calving (AFC) were estimated using Model 1 (Y= Xb + Z1a + e), Model2 (Y= Xb + Z1a + Z3c + e), Model3 (Y= Xb + Z1a + Z2m + e (cova, m = 0), and Model4 (Y= Xb + Z1a + Z2m + Z3c + e (cova, m = 0) whereas parameters of reproductive traits including gestation length (GL), calving interval (CI) and days open (DO) were estimated using model 2 and 4 which fit permanent environmental effect due to repeated records per cow. Correlations (genetic and phenotypic) among the different traits were estimated from bi--variate analysis by using model 1 for growth traits and AFC and model 2 to estimate the correlation between CI, GL and DO and birth weight (BWT) and GL. Correlation between birth weight and gestation length were estimated by treating gestation length as a trait of calf. Due to record limitation correlation between AFC with other reproductive traits were not estimated. Estimates of direct heritability of reproductive performance traits from the best model were 0.003 ± 0.05 for AFC, 0.00 ± 0.03 for GL and CI and 0.013 ± 0.03 for DO. The phenotypic correlations between reproductive traits were 0.003 ± 0.034 for CI and GL, 0.37 ± 0.041 for CI and DO and 0.167 ± 0.036 for DO and GL and the genetic correlation between reproductive traits ranged from -0.94 ± 0.2 for DO and GL to 0.83 ± 0.579 for CI and DO. Genetic correlation between growth and AFC ranged from 0.77 ± 0.24 for BWT and AFC to 0.87 ± 0.03 for pre-weaning average daily gain (PADG) and AFC. The phenotypic and genetic correlations between BWT and GL were 0.03 ± 0.05 and -0.84 ± 0.013 respectively. The results of genetic correlation between considered traits was ranged from moderate to high and it indicates that selection for one trait would have a significant effect on the other traits not considered however selection must be done with caution. The heritability estimates confirmed the presence of high environmental effect among the study population and it masks the individual animal genetic difference. Given the low heritability estimates obtained, effective improvement in reproduction performance of Fogera cattle could be achieved by improving the production conditions and through crossbreeding.

Prolonged summer drought periods are forecasted for the Baltic Sea region during the 21st century, thus increasing the risk of drought stress of saplings used in forest regeneration. Nevertheless, the vitality of young stands might be increased by the selection of suitable planting material. The aim of this study was to estimate the effect of changes in distribution of summer precipitation on height increment, biomass distribution and root morphology of Scots pine and silver birch planting material commonly used in the forest regeneration in Latvia. Containerized pine and bare rooted birch saplings, planted in three different soil types, were subjected to altered distribution of summer precipitation, provided by the use of automated shelter. Sheltered saplings were weekly irrigated with the sum of precipitation of a corresponding period, while afield planted saplings had an unchanged precipitation regime and served as control. Height increment was measured once per week and estimation of morphology of saplings was done after the end of every vegetation season. Significant (p is less than 0.05) differences in height increment, and shoot and root biomass were observed among the same planting material in different irrigation regimes and soil types. In the control plots of peat soil, pine had a significantly (p is less than 0.05) larger height increment while birch-significantly (p is less than 0.05) smaller compared to experiment. Forecasted longer drought periods might reduce the growth of Scots pine in fertile forest types but silver birch growth might be affected in fertile mineral soils in future.