Production economics forms a very important part of an enormous range of economic theory. Agricultural production is no exception. When evaluating the competitiveness of the multifunctional agriculture, it is necessary to use the measure of efficiency instead of productivity. The conception of the efficiency is explained and the methods for measurement are provided. The authors discuss the methods of Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA), Free Disposal Hull (FDH) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) that are particularly useful for multi-criterial evaluation of multifunctional processes. Those methods assign an efficiency score to each Decision Making Unit (DMU) based on how well it transforms a given set of inputs into outputs. Most studies have only focused on application of DEA method for assessment of the efficiency of agriculture farms. There is still a need on applications for sectors. This paper provides an examination of the applicability of DEA method to agriculture sectors efficiency measurement. By applying mathematical models, which are based on the DEA, the efficiency of agriculture in each EU country was evaluated.

Pesticides have been used for a long time in agriculture to prevent the growth of undesired organisms. However, depending on the type of production (i.e., conventional, organic, and regenerative), they might not be applied. Adequate types and uses of pesticides should not cause any damage to any non-target species or environments due to the exposure to it, especially if all farming operations have been done properly. Reversely, when pesticides are applied in inappropriate time, amount or technique, they may cause several impacts, among which is water contamination. Brazil stands out worldwide for its agricultural potential, but it is exposed to risks concerning the water supply security to its population. The current study is a comparison of the Maximum Permissible Concentrations (MPC) for pesticides in potable water supply in Brazil with the values set in the United States, Canada, European Union countries, Japan, and the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization. The regulations of each country were used, as well as the trading, consumption and agricultural production data. The Brazilian regulation is the one accounting for the largest number of pesticides. However, their MPC is 5,000 times more permissible than that from the European Union for the herbicide known as glyphosate, 300 times than that for 2,4-d and 20 times than that for atrazine. Finally, it was possible to observe the relevance of revising the regulation and public policies in place to minimize the indiscriminate use of pesticides in Brazil and adapt these compounds to the standards in a global level.

The contemporary scientific and technical community claims that the new development paradigm will be based on the priority of the universal laws of nature, the principles of ecological economics and the widespread use of digital transformation. The analysis of the sustainable development strategy Latvia 2030 and the presented changes in the value of indicators showed that, it is quite difficult to put together a common unified picture of Latvia’s movement towards sustainable development. The main goal of the article is to present a new approach to the assessment of sustainable development and to monitoring system, using a system’s power changes analysis method. In the context of a Latvian sustainable development strategy, the authors presented the results of the formalisation of new approach to the sustainable development monitoring, using an invariant coordinate system in units of power (energy flow) in compare with calculated data in monetary terms. Calculations and the initial interpretation of the results of Latvia as well as of the five EU countries from the Baltic Sea region – Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania – were carried out for the period 1990–2019. The presented indicators of sustainable development show that achieving the strategic goals of Latvia 2030 would be very difficult without any serious internal and external incentives. The results can provide a basis for creation of the development strategy both the country as a whole and each region separately.