Rural areas in Poland are vastly differentiated in their level of social and economic development. Adverse natural, social, economic and technological processes contribute to the formation of problem areas. Negative phenomena can spread across several municipalities, contributing to the number and severity of problems. Rural municipalities characterized by a low level of social and technical development are not attractive sites for prospective investors or home buyers. Geographical location can also contribute to the formation of problem areas. The Region of Warmia and Mazury borders the Kaliningrad Region, and it is one of the least developed areas in Poland. Rural areas in Warmia and Mazury are characterized by significant disparities in the level of social and economic development. The aim of this paper was to identify problem rural areas in the Region of Warmia and Mazury based on indicators of social, demographic, economic and infrastructure development. Problem areas in the Region of Warmia and Mazury were identified using Hellwig’s taxonomic measure of development. The results of our analysis indicate that in rural areas in the Region of Warmia and Mazury, the most severe problems are observed in typically agricultural municipalities which have a peripheral location and where state-owned farms had acted as the main employer.

This article analyses the elements of R. Hackman’s and G. Oldman’s work characteristics model: the essential work characteristics, critical psychological states, as well as personal and activity results. Research aim is to offer municipal administrative staff innovative elements of the motivation system. The elements of employee motivation are linked with certain work characteristics, distinguishing specific features of the work process that would meet the needs of workers such as the use of self-expression and potential opportunities, ensuring satisfaction with the content of work, independence and recognition. Before suggesting innovative motivation system elements, the factors and motivation measures that most influence municipal administrative staff of Raseiniai, Joniškis, Pakruojis, Akmenė had been found out. Essential elements of work characteristics model (essential work characteristics, psychological states and personal and activity results) among the employees were identified. It presents the characteristics of innovative motivation system elements of municipal administrative staff. Main analysis methods were used: analysis of documents, quantitative research – survey, comparative analyses, methods of statistical and cluster analysis.

The purpose of this article has been to present a range of products which can be obtained from agricultural production and used for energy purposes. The domestic demand for plant material to be converted to biocomponents was assessed, including the demand for oilseed rape seeds and other grain used to make bioethanol in Poland. One of the ways to limit the adverse effect of fossil fuels on the environment is by using renewable resources. Agriculture is the producer of biomass used to make biocomponents for liquid fuels and raw materials for substitution of solid fuels. The EU, wishing to stimulate production of biomass for energy purposes, has brought to life several legal acts which force the use of biofuels in the European Community. Farmers who produce substrate for bio-fuel production were offered subsidies to energy crop plantations, at first paid from the state budget, and in 2007 – 2009 provided under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which increased the farmers’ revenues from farming. The decisions approved of while reviewing the CAP are to improve – via the market mechanism – the production and export potential of the whole EU. This is to be achieved, for example, by abolishing the subsidies to energy crops, which ceased to be paid in 2010. Such subsidies improved (artificially) the profitability of energy crop plantations, while causing a relative decrease in food production in Europe. By participating in the CAP, Poland is obliged to undertake certain measures in the domestic policy that will comply with the decisions made on the EU level.

The paper focuses on the analysis of agricultural externalities and their valuation methods. Agricultural activity beyond supplying food and fibre, can also be instrumental in forming the landscape, providing natural resources, and preserving biodiversity. Furthermore, agriculture contributes to the achievement of societal goals such as the viability of rural areas and their development, food security, and preservation of cultural heritage. Positive externalities of agriculture assert in the form of public goods, whereas intensive environmentally unbalanced agricultural activity causes damage to the environment. The objectives of this paper are to define agricultural externalities and to analyse methods of their valuation. In order to achieve the research aim, characteristics of agricultural externalities in farming systems have been analysed; evaluation methods of the benefit and cost of externalities in farming systems, revealing their advantages and disadvantages have been examined, and scientific studies on evaluation of externalities have been reviewed. Methods of systemic and logic analysis were applied for analysis of agricultural externalities and their evaluation. The analysis has showed that stated preference methods are commonly used for determination of the positive externalities. The most limited methods are travel cost and hedonic pricing methods, which are suitable only for the evaluation of public goods related to recreation or leisure. For evaluation of negative externalities the external costs of agricultural activity are estimated.

The value of farm diversification is unquestionable especially in terms of additional income generation, income stability and easing the employment difficulties of agricultural producers; its importance has recently been in the focus of agricultural and rural policies. The research purpose was to describe the situation of farm diversification in Hungary and to analyse the characteristics of diversified farms, as well as to determine which factors influence the extent and direction of diversification. The research method is based on statistical data analysing and questionnaire survey. Contrary to the above my analyses showed that the share of diversified farms is rather low in the small-scale, semi-commercial and part-time farms; its wide scale distribution is hindered by several factors. Based on the analyses I found that in private farms and in corporate farms it is characteristic that farm diversification activities are closely connected to the main activity of the farm, but they are of different type. I could state that the share of diversified farms is more significant in the labour-intensive farms and primarily in commercial farms. The share of young farmers and farmers in active age, qualified and with a full-time job is higher in the diversified and organic farms.

Consumer decision making is one of the most relevant topics in marketing. Therefore, organizations endeavour to create products in a way that correspond to their customers’ needs and preferences. The emerging worldwide interest in healthy lifestyle and organic products could become the key success factor for food producing organizations. The article aims to determine the product attributes affecting consumer’s choice of a milk product in Lithuania. The method of Conjoint analysis was chosen for the research. The research was provided as a repetition of the same research, done in 2009. According to the principles of the Conjoint analysis, six attributes of milk were named: ‘Country of origin’, ‘Naturalness’, ‘Package size’, ‘Package type’, ‘Richness’, and ‘Price’. Each of the attributes was divided into several levels. While analyzing the structure of milk market in 2014, four market segments were distinguished: ‘Irrationally price concerned’, ‘Rationally price concerned’, ‘Ethnocentric ecologists’, and ‘Richness concerned’. Such segments like ‘Ethnocentric’, ‘Price-and-Richness concerned’ or ‘Ethnocentric price-concerned’ have disappeared from the market during the five-year period. According to research results, following suggestions were made for the companies dealing with the milk market in Lithuania: first of all, a company has to make a decision about the segment to work with; afterwards, based on the results of conjoint analysis (conditional utilities of attributes levels), optimal propositions for every particular segment have to be composed.

Self-government as representing the interests of the local population, social and political life organizing structure, occupies an important place in the political system of most of the countries. It is perceived as the lowest level of territorial division but as the closest one to civil society. Local self-government, in order to adapt to the changes, should focus on the investigation of the specific community issues, opportunities and needs of the development of the area. Currently, more and more relevant for district development stakeholders are becoming local authorities. The relevance of the topic is signified by the fact that the ever-changing environment provides people with new opportunities, but also causes a lot of problems. European district development policy provides new features for countryside areas, such as economic, social, environmental and territorial ones. The changes radically change the concept of local development and activities: from a centralized model of transition to exogenous and endogenous decentralized model, the latter based on local initiatives and resources, and innovations. The research objective is to single out theoretical possibilities for the application of the institutional dependency model in order to ensure the harmonious governance of Lithuanian local authorities. An assumption is made that this is a new opportunity for improving the governance process of territorial self-government. The research is based on the scientific literature, document analysis and synthesis, systematization, case studies, comparative analysis and visualization methods.

Unemployment and labour market adjustments have featured prominently among the problems of transitional economies. However, the position of young people and their transition from school to work in these new market economies has been virtually ignored. This paper deals with long-term youth unemployment problems and their integration into the labour market as viewed by different authors. The authors consider that the youth long-term unemployment is a global problem. Also, there are analysed statistical data on youth long-term unemployment, and a forecast of the youth unemployment rate for the 1st quarter of 2014 is made. The weakening of the global recovery in the years 2012 and 2013 has aggravated the youth employment crisis when there were no free jobs with adequate requirements for people without education and professional skills. The current situation promotes the trend that was already evident before the economic crisis. Most of young people are now turning to available part-time jobs or choose to study only. The author considers that the youths who have access to different resources will find more stable jobs or make their own businesses after unemployment than those lacking such different kinds of support. In building the education and employment decisions in the transition from school to work, there is a strong evidence of the importance of youths making good initial career decisions and an enduring effect of academic achievement on labour market and education outcomes.

Tourism industry is becoming one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Considering its significance in the economy of many countries, the research in tourism is growing, as well. Achieving to develop tourism industry, tourist satisfaction becomes a considerable goal for many countries. In this article, rural tourism is taken into consideration. However, scientific research in the field of Lithuanian rural tourist satisfaction is still scarce. Therefore, the level of Lithuanian rural tourist satisfaction and the factors determining their satisfaction are being determined in current research aiming to elaborate Rural Tourist Satisfaction Index in Lithuanian framework. Research results highlighted that the determinants of Lithuanian rural tourist satisfaction are: ‘accommodation and catering’, ‘destination aesthetics’, ‘environmental preservation’, ‘destination marketing’ and ‘perceived value’. Rural tourists in Lithuania value the benefits of ‘green marketing’, amenities and the efforts of expanding the variety of activities; the emphasis of all these aspects is perceived as ‘destination marketing’. On the other hand, levels of activities in rural destinations, quality of accommodation and catering, and aesthetics in Lithuanian rural destinations are insufficient. Enhancing these aspects could result in higher satisfaction and loyalty levels of rural tourists, and that would contribute to the rural tourism development in Lithuania.

Land fragmentation is a problem for many post-communist countries. Different aspects of land fragmentation have been investigated by many researchers. However, there is little attention paid to the issues of internal fragmentation of agricultural parcels. In this study, internal fragmentation is understood as the following phenomenon: a parcel consists of different types of land plots or one land type (e.g. arable land) is split into separated plots. In this study the empirical test of internal fragmentation of arable land inside agricultural parcels has been made. The aim of the study was to examine the existence and extent of internal fragmentation of agricultural parcels. The digital map of boundaries of arable land parcels and data about land types (arable land, roads, etc.) from the Estonia National Topographic Database were the data sources of the study. The following characteristics were calculated in a GIS environment for agricultural parcels: compactness coefficient; number of pieces of arable land inside a parcel; Januszewski index for characterization of internal land fragmentation and the ratio (in percent) of arable land in a parcel. The results of the study show the existence of internal fragmentation of arable land inside agricultural parcels. Arable land is internally fragmented in about 30 percent of agricultural parcels. The area of the arable land plot inside parcels is 7.7 hectares if there is no internal fragmentation. In the case of internal fragmentation of the arable land, this area is 5.6 hectares respectively.