Volume 28 (2013): Issue 1 (February 2013)

Already during the Land Reform, land properties of several land parcels were formed in the rural areas. Another factor that benefits to the fragmentation of farm properties is development of land market because buying or renting land for farm size building, it is not always possible to find adjacent land plot. Consequently, the land fragmentation not only makes land management difficult, but also increases the transport costs. With this rural land tenure system, competitive and efficient agricultural production cannot be discussed, so a large part of rural areas remains untreated. It was found that there is a strong correlation between the area of land parcels and their management - the smaller the area of a land parcel by the agricultural land, the greater the chance that it would not be managed, and vice versa, the greater the area, the more it is cultivated, that is, managed. Land consolidation is performed as the farm land use optimization activities in other countries. Land consolidation can be one of the efficient means for rural development, it can encourage formation of competitive agricultural production structure, giving farmers the opportunity to create holdings with a small number, but bigger size and better-shaped land plots. Thus, more income and opportunities to expand types of farming are created.

From 2004 till mid-2007, the economics of Latvia experienced fast development, which to some extent was influenced by accessing the European Union (EU), which in its turn provided access to the EU funds and subsequently to significant investment in the country’s development, thus also affecting the topicalities of social security and employment. Because of the world recession, the EU has experienced an economic downfall which hit Latvia and its regions very hard, causing a significant reduction in the economic activity, increase in the unemployment level, and the risk of social stratification. To facilitate the socio-economic development of the regions, to increase the level of welfare in the regions with lower socio-economic development indicators, as well as to prevent the possibility of appearance of unfavourable situations in the future, it is necessary to use correctly the EU funds available in Latvia, including the financing of the European Social Fund (ESF). In the period from 2004 till 2010, the Riga region has acquired 33% of the total ESF financing in the welfare sector, Latgale has the second largest financing - 25%, but the other resources have been acquired in a more or less equal amounts in the other regions: Kurzeme (16%), Zemgale (14%), and Vidzeme (12%). The ESF financing in the welfare sector has influenced the socio-economic indicators of the regions. Functional correlations are observed among the ESF financing in the welfare sector and the value changes in the number of registered unemployed persons, job seekers and the territory development index.

Dairy sector is an essential part of Baltic States economies in terms of created gross value added (GVA) and labour usage. The dairy sector’s potential to create economic effect is underutilised as a result of fragmented production structure and ensuing low economic efficiency. Integration can facilitate concentration of the sector’s market structure. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effect of dairy sector secondary-level company integration on the creation of GVA. To accomplish the aim, an extensive sample of 54 companies is used whereas previous research has been based on data of only 5-10 largest Baltic States companies. It is concluded that integration characteristics of dairy processing companies significantly influence relationships which express their GVA creation pattern. Dominating horizontally integrated dairy processing companies are the most valuable to the economy as their GVA increase rate which results from net turnover growth is the highest. Non-integrated companies’ GVA growth rate provided that their net turnover grows is lower than for dominating horizontally integrated companies. Increases in company size do not statistically significantly increase the relation of GVA to the sum of net turnover and other operating income. Both successful and commercially weak companies can produce high GVA in respect to their size. However, only the successful companies are expected to generate positive growth dynamics, be economically efficient and can be relied upon as driving force of dairy sector growth.

In the context of the global financial-economic crisis it becomes important to find a stronger base for assessment of the socio-economic development and, in particular, search for better indicators. Therefore, the hypothesis is set that it is necessary to develop the EU Development Index, which will provide better assessment of an on-going socio-economic change. The objective of the article is to describe the EU Development Index calculation results and compare them with the Human Development Index values for each Member state of the EU. Ranking list of the EU Member States according to the Human Development Index values did not change substantially, suggesting that the Human Development Index inadequately responds to key socioenvironmental changes that occurred during the global financial economic crisis. At the same time, a number of countries show a sharp decline of the EU development index values, reflecting the impact of global economic crisis, while some countries with a high level of public debt and low confidence of the financial markets have remained in their positions by the both indexes in the year 2009. However, these countries most probably will be forced to make the considerable fiscal discipline measures, which inevitably will have an impact on GDP and income indicators in these countries, therefore their rankings in the coming years will deteriorate. Completely impartial assessment will be possible when countries with high debt levels will have balanced their budgets and economic growth will be based mostly on their own income and production instead of external cash flows and investment entering the country. It can be concluded that EU Development Index allows, in a more equitable fashion, to assess disparities of the EU Member States by development level and more rapidly reflect the rapid socio-economic change.

Agriculture and manufacture of food products is important source of employment in Latvia. The number of people engaged in agribusiness has considerably decreased over the past years in Latvia. Therefore the paper seeks to analyze the existing situation in utilization of agricultural potential, as well as to evaluate the role of agribusiness potential in maintenance of rural employment in Latvia. The potential is analyzed in the context of the productivity of the persons employed in agribusiness, land use and the self-sufficiency level with the main food products in Latvia. The value added in Latvian agribusiness is very low in comparison with other EU countries, indicating low labour productivity in Latvia. The potential of agricultural land is also not fully utilized in Latvia, which gives basis to consider obtaining of higher agribusiness output in Latvia at the expense of inclusion of additional land resources. The development of the potential of Latvian agribusiness is to be associated with the satisfying of demand for meat in local market and increase in the supply of dairy products on export market. Considering the necessity to reach at least the EU average labour productivity, even the full utilization of agricultural potential is not sufficient for the maintenance of rural employment in Latvia at the level close to current. The decrease in employment in the agribusiness of Latvia cannot be stopped, even more - it is possible that it will continue provoke the decrease also in other sectors of economic activity, namely - sectors of public and private services provided to people in rural space.

Immovable property tax is one of the national taxes the administration of which is subjected to continuous changes. Frequent amendments to the law “On Immovable Property Tax” (1997) also evidence the mentioned changes. The procedure for tax calculation, tax base, and tax rates has been considerably changed in the course of time. The research provides a discussion on the changes in tax formation, development, and administration in Latvia to understand better the essence of immovable property tax. The research aim was to analyse the development of immovable property tax and the course of reforms for the period of 1998-2012. The research also studies the expected changes in the application of immovable property tax from the year 2013. It is envisaged to transfer the rights to local governments to determine the immovable property tax rates in their administrative territories within the range of 0.2-3% from 2013. The research concludes that frequent reforms of immovable property tax have promoted the development of a new, stable, and predictable methodology for the future application of immovable property tax in Latvia. The analysis of revenues from immovable property tax for the period of 2006-2011 is based on the annually growing significance of immovable property tax. The research suggests that immovable property tax is the only tax the revenues of which have increased within the period of 2009-2011 and the largest revenues from immovable property tax are collected in Riga City municipality comprising 53% of the total revenues from immovable property tax collected in Latvia.

Oilseed rape is affected by a complex of different crucifer pests. Cruciferous stem weevils (Ceuthorhynchus spp.) are relatively new oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) pests in Latvia. Although currently brassica pest control is performed according to the appearance of first specimens of Ceutorhynchus or other brassica pests, for a large number of insecticide treatments a positive biological efficiency is observed (however, within a large range – 8–98%). The current application of brassica pest control may be described as preventive, which is not permitted in the integrated pest management system. The present research estimates biological efficiency and application time of synthetic pyrethroid (PIR) and combined pyrethroid+neonicotonoid (PIR+NNI) to control winter oilseed rape pest species, as well as stimulates discussion about their use. Evaluation of the monitoring data of Ceutorhynchus spp. showed that C. typhae and C. sulcicollis emerge first, but damaging species C. pallidactylus – a week later. Consequently it is not only necessary to monitor the weevils but also to identify their species in order to decide on the control measures. The combined PIR+NNI insecticide proved to have the highest biological efficiency for cabbage stem weevil control. Both classes of synthetic insecticides revealed a considerable biological efficiency for weevil control. The research suggests that effectiveness of insecticide is affected by many factors: plant development stage during the spray, agroclimatic conditions, spray quality, field location and size, distribution of pests, and crop rotation.