Bioeconomy-based food industry of Serbia: The role of intellectual capital

The aim of this exploratory study was to determine most useful indicators of intellectual capital in Serbian food industry. The study investigated managers' perceptions of indicator usefulness and practical application. They were top and middle managers from 18 food organizations, committed to the bioeconomy. The survey items were divided into human, structural, and relational capital. A closed-ended questionnaire was used to collect data, later analysed by SPSS 21 statistical software. The results have demonstrated that all indicators were seen as very important, with relational capital being the most useful of all

Comparative characteristics of some Balkan countries rural regions

Defining rural area is the first step in shaping efficient development policy. There is no single universal definition, nor a typology of the rural areas. Moreover, in most Balkan countries, serious institutional efforts have not been made to classify populated areas as rural or urban, nor identify different types of rural areas. This paper makes a comparative analysis of various factors that are important for determination of the degree of rurality and main features of regional and rural development of some Balkan countries (Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia). One notices* that in a relatively similar natural-geographic and to some degree historic and developmental setting, similar socio-demographic processes are occurring in parallel. Difference in features and dynamics of these processes is resulting from different institutional approach

RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES AND AGRICULTURE

Renewable sources of energy consider: energy made from biomass, solar energy, hydro and geothermal energy, as well as wind energy. The paper indicates energy consumption from renewable sources with focus on biomass, where substitution is the biggest possible. Avoiding atmosphere contamination with greenhouse gases is biomass advantage in comparison to fossil fuels

USE OF WATER RESOURCES FOR IRRIGATION IN TERMS OF THE COMPETITIVENESS OF AGRICULTURE

Serbia has favorable natural resources for successful agricultural production, except the amount of precipitation and its schedule during the vegetation period, which is a limiting factor for high yield and stable production. In such conditions, irrigation increases yield up to two times, and also stabilize the production which contributes to more productive use of natural resources and increases the competitiveness of agriculture. Drought, in more or less intensity, is expressed in about 80% of years when the loss of production in relation to irrigation amounts from 50% up to 80%, or the years with favorable conditions for Crop production. In addition to increasing yield, the irrigation contributes to intensify agricultural production, allows the change of the seed time structure in favor of high-cumulative plant species, production of two harvests per year etc. For this reason, the results of continuing research in use of water resources for irrigation are presented, so as their effect on the yield in farming and vegetable production and contribution to competitiveness of agriculture in relation to the other economic sectors