The aim of the work was to study accessions of Dactylis glomerata L. of different origin for breeding in the Leningrad region. The work was carried out at the Leningrad Agricultural Research Institute. The study involved 15 accessions. The nursery was founded in 2016 and included two replications for green yield and two – for seed production. Cutting and sampling for biochemical studies were conducted in May-June 2018, seeds were collected in July. The amount of ascorbic acid, carotenoids and chlorophylls and crude protein were determined. Statistical analysis included the calculation of the parameters of variation, ANOVA and correlation analysis. Three groups were identified by the degree of ripeness: a small group of early maturing – 31 days, a group of late maturing (single accession from Karelia) – 51 days, a large group of middle maturing – 34–37 days. For the late maturing accession the mechanism of regulation of the beginning of heading is due to the sensitivity to photoperiod. The adaptive potential of widely zoned varieties is wider than for localized. Their productivity is higher. The content of pigments in the green mass is closely correlated. The system of pigments in the complex of characters is separate, but is positively associated with the seed productivity and negatively – with the content of ascorbic acid. The seed productivity of the accessions is related to the total pigment content and power of the generative shoots (length and mass).

The article deals with the issue of rural population decline in Poland in 1995−2017. The aim of the study was to present the phenomenon of depopulation involving a decrease in the number of people living in rural areas in Poland at the local level. Based on the literature, the potential effects of depopulation on local development were indicated. The data of the Central Statistical Office and the results of own research carried out in three rural communes in 2019 were used. The occurrence of regional differentiation of rural depopulation processes in Poland was found. Analysing the phenomenon at the local level, it was found that as much as 38.6% of rural communes were characterized by depopulation (a loss of over 5% of the population), including for 10.7% of communes, the population decline in the analysed period was more than 15%. These areas can be considered as problem areas. A particularly unfavourable situation occurs in eastern Poland and the Opolskie Voivodeship. There was a positive correlation between the loss of population and the development of own revenues of communes’ budgets. Studies show that the phenomenon of depopulation is mainly caused by a negative natural increase, which was preceded by a migration outflow associated with the lack of jobs in rural areas.

The social environment of a university, which is comprised of students, teaching staff and parents, play an essential role in the educational process. Students’ decisions, learning and attainment could be considerably affected by relationships with their coursemates in particular. The present research therefore aims to examine students’ expectations towards their coursemates in the academic environment in Latvia. The research surveyed 979 students at Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (2016–2018). The research has found that for students, the study process involves not only learning but also common events with their coursemates as well as informal relationships. Comparing the role of coursemates and the informal influence of parents and teaching staff, the respondents preferred the involvement of their coursemates. Larger differences in opinion were found for the informal role of teaching staff in learning. Of the respondents, 47% expected teaching staff to be friends, while 29% slightly agreed that the teaching staff had to be authorities and knowledgeable specialists, which indicated that it was important for some students to disassociate formal relationships from informal ones between students and teaching staff. The dispersion of opinions that could be observed for some variables might be explained by the specifics of the programmes the students represented. Statistically significant differences in opinion were found between bioscience and engineering students in relation to the attitude of teaching staff to students, parental support and coursemate support in learning (p is less than 0.05) – the bioscience students more often favoured informal relationship aspects.

This paper summarizes the results of a theoretical study as well as practically oriented research about the concept of managing the social sphere of the village and considers the problem-perspective field of development the social infrastructure management in the villages of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The chosen topic is relevant as an insufficiently studied scientific problem, and also has practical significance for the well-being and stable development of rural areas. The study describes the scheme of management of the rural social infrastructure in the Republic of Kazakhstan from the standpoint of object-subject, methods and results. Interviews of the rural population were conducted about the satisfaction with the rural social infrastructure and attitude towards the work of local governance. Rural settlements of Mangystau oblast currently have an average not significant level of social infrastructure development and the level of satisfaction of residents in different areas with its condition varies from very low to sufficient. The most important principles for the development of definition of rural social infrastructure management and its functions have been highlighted with the help of a comparative analysis of various approaches. According to the results of the study, it was concluded that the development of promising directions of management the rural social infrastructure requires a comprehensive study and evaluation of the facilities, mechanism and principles of this management and the identification of its current problems with regional development tasks.

Baltic States and Finland are vibrant regions with similar sized population and historical experience. Their adaptation to the new digital era is undermined by lack of professionals. Across the EU a major reason for labour shortage in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields professionals lies in the insufficient supply of higher education graduates due to stagnant enrolment rates in STEM fields. The aim of this research addresses the existing trends in tertiary STEM education in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This includes the tasks of analysing the quantitative trends (enrolment and graduation) in the HEIs of Baltics and Finland over the period from 2013 to 2017 as well as analysing the structural changes taking place in the respective higher education systems from 2013 to 2018. The Baltic States combined have numerical advantages in terms of young people, and young professionals (25−34 year olds) with tertiary education. However, in terms of the number of students and graduates Finland is at the forefront. The largest proportion of students enrolling in STEM fields lie within Finland (33.9%) whereas the smallest one is in Latvia (24.0%). Finland is also a leader in the share and total number of information and communication technology (ICT) graduates. In the period 2013−2017 Latvia’s results improved in two (5th and 6th) of the STEM study fields, Lithuania made a remarkable result in one STEM (6th) field by 46.9%, Estonia saw a relative increase in the 5th and 6th study field while Finland experienced a numerical decrease in all three STEM fields.

Today technological progress is reshaping global economic development and changing the overall welfare of societies. Therefore, it is important to assess challenges and readiness of the European Union to use its capacity to ensure that technologies benefit people and bring them towards more inclusive societies enhancing opportunities to use artificial intellect for making health, education, agriculture, services and manufacturing industries more efficient and user friendly. The Digital Economy and Society Index analyses the digital performance of the EU Member States across five main dimensions: connectivity, human capital, use of internet, integration of digital technology, digital public services. However, despite intention to jointly develop Digital Single Market, the gap between the EU top digital countries and less digitally advanced countries remains large. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the digital performance indicators of the EU countries, in particular focusing to Poland and Latvia to assess their progress and potential of their human capital’s digital skills. The research is based on theoretical literature studies on industrial revolution stages, European Union Commission documents, indexes and publications available in relevant public institutions such as ministries and industry reports. The research employed monographic method, analysis and synthesis methods as well as graphical data analysis. The research results give evidence that currently Poland’s human capital is significantly better prepared for making use of future digital economy challenges than Latvia’s human capital, and there is a close link between countries’ R and D expenditures proportion of GDP and their human capital’s readiness to integrate in digital economy.

In 2018, the Polish Trade Inspection in the whole country carried out an assessment of unrefined vegetable oils and olive oils of various categories. First of all, the correctness of marking, physicochemical parameters, storage conditions, traceability of products and their dates of minimum durability were assessed. In total 380 batches of products were inspected. Results of the examination show that producers cheat consumers by providing, for example, untrue nutritional values or false information about dietetic or health traits. The purpose of this article is to determine what consumers should know to verify the correctness of information on product labels independently. The theoretical part of the article was based on the EU regulations analysis regarding vegetable oils properties, including the characteristics of olive oil. The empirical part concerned data from Polish Trade Inspection reports, as well as statistical data on production and sale of oil and olive oil from the portal Statista. In this article methods of documentary research and comparative analysis were used. For the main conclusion it can be assumed that products of poor quality or incorrect labeling can be found in each product category; therefore, consumers should pay attention to such elements as information in their native language, a full list of ingredients, or correct indication of nutritional values.

Social innovations are recognized as one of the most promising innovations in solving social problems in rural areas. When assessing the creation of social innovation, it should be noted that not only the goal and the result but also the whole process of creation of social innovation is important. The analysis of theoretical and practical research has revealed that traditional methods of solving problems in rural areas are not working, which consequently leads to search for innovative solutions. The most obvious social problems in rural areas, such as an aging society, youth departure, lack of breakthrough and innovative ideas, etc. can be noticed when assessing factors of social environment. At this stage, the solutions sought through the prism of social innovation can become those that will ensure the wellbeing of the rural area and support people living there. Social innovation is widely spread at the level of the European Union; however, in Lithuania, social innovation is taking just the first steps. The article analyses the case of Sėlynė village in Rokiškis region, during which social innovation that succeeded to unite rural community has been created. The article aims to analyse the process of creation of social innovation in rural areas from the theoretical point of view and to present the case of Sėlynė village of Rokiškis region. The main problem is the complex understanding of the creation process of social innovation.

The economic situation of Lithuanian agricultural sector faces with challenges in regards to family farms’ income instability and income discrepancies between family farms. The aim of this paper is to assess the economic sustainability of Lithuanian sector at farm level across farm size classes in terms of physical size and by specialization. Furthermore, as the sustainability construction index method was employed as basis to conduct the research, the methodology aspects related to the number of indicators included in the set of indicators and the estimation of thresholds of sustainability intervals were empirically analysed. The findings of economic sub-index assessment indicates very good level of Lithuanian family farms as 68% of the sample farms were defined by medium level of economic sustainability. The assessment of family farms’ economic sustainability by specialization revealed that the horticulture farms performed the highest economic sustainability and, at the other end of spectrum, the COP farms achieved the lowest economic sustainability. As regards the physical size of farms, the best economic sustainability was observed on the smallest farms in terms of size and on the largest farms, of less than 5 ha and from 500 ha or over, respectively.

Social entrepreneurship plays an increasing role in society. It is evidenced not only by the inclusion of a section on social entrepreneurship in the Europe 2020 strategy but also by the engagement of European countries in making legal documents on social entrepreneurship as well as designing support programmes in order to help entrepreneurs to start up a social entrepreneurship business. The research aim is to characterise the legal aspects of social entrepreneurship and support instruments for the promotion of social entrepreneurship in the Baltic States. In order to achieve the aim, the research analysed legal acts and strategic policy documents regulating social entrepreneurship in Latvia as well as analysed the legal framework for social entrepreneurship in Lithuania. To do the analysis, the research examined the kinds of support for starting up a social entrepreneurship business in the Baltic States. The research has found that no uniform definition of social entrepreneurship is available in Europe, which does not result in a unanimous opinion on what a social enterprise should be. In the Baltic States, the Social Enterprise Law has been passed in Latvia and Lithuania; besides, the laws mainly focus on the integration of target groups into society, addressing no other essential problems that could be solved by means of social entrepreneurship, e.g. environmental protection.