EXTERNALITIES AS A BASIS FOR ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF WILD FRUITS

Regardless of their type, or whether they are higher (vascular) plants or fungi, wild fruits used for human nutrition have other indirect values besides of their market value. This value is commonly characterised under the term ”ecosystem values”. Such a characteristic is mostly based on the fact that this group of fungi and plants are naturally grown, man does not cultivate or process them, but is only involved in the process of their collection. In this respect, there is a need for constructing models and techniques for their economic evaluation, which is different from the product market values, or market values solely based on the supply and demand relation of certain products. Wild fruits belong to the group of renewable natural resources which represent part of the biological funds and according to their location they are usually placed in the group of "public goods", thus their exploitation is causing series of external effects (externalities). For this purpose, it is necessary to identify and specify these externalities in order to create an efficient system for management and protection of these resources. The aim of this paper is to analyze the theoretical concepts and methods that can provide base for building a system for sustainable use of wild fruits. Additional contribution will be provided in form of directions for their efficient management on the basis of theoretically and practically sublimated best practices

SUPPLY CHAINS AS NETWORK - THE CASE OF ORGANIC PRODUCTION IN MACEDONIA

The absence of relations between the primary producers and markets has been identified as one of the primary problems in the supply chain for producing organic products in Macedonia. Nevertheless, the organisation and network structure of the supply chains are often responsible for the economic performance, competiveness and information diffusion between the trading firms and their partners-farmers producing organic products. In this regard, analysing supply chains through social network analysis lenses helps to identify the actors and the important factors that contribute in the information diffusion across the supply chains. The aim of this paper is to identify and map the information diffusion channels of the largest distributers of organic products in Macedonia, by mapping the structure of their social networks. The Social Network Analysis includes networks on horizontal level - farmer’s decision to get involved in organic farming, or transfer the conventional production into organic, and vertical level – information provided by the distribution and trading partners in the organic value chain. The results show that information and resources are often embedded in the farmers’ personal network, however farmers producing organic products are a closed group with very few relations among themselves indicating to a low level of trust in sharing or receiving information. Most of the identified relations among the actors in the analysed network are based either on commercial basis (distributors) or friendship (other farmers). The identified absence of relations among farmers on horizontal level can seriously impede the transfer of information and decrease the motivation for entering, maintaining and introducing innovations in the organic production, thus further examination and improvement of the information channels is necessary

DAMAGE ASSESSMENT IN AGRICULTURE – FLOOD DAMAGES IN PERENNIAL CROPS

Contributing to the already existing vulnerability and risks for the agricultural producers, natural disasters influence the development of agricultural production and in most instances with a negative connotation. Agricultural production is greatly reliant on weather conditions, and is often adversely affected by disasters related to weather and climate circumstances. In August 2016, North Macedonia and especially the region around the capital city of Skopje was heavily hit by floods, causing considerable damage to the agricultural production in this region. This natural disaster is expected to have a prolonged impact and assessing the damage for the perennial crops is important for the farmers, but would also contribute in the evidence based research on the topic. The results presented in this paper are based actual data, collected immediately after the flood. The analysis includes the reported damages in crop production, their structure, area affected, etc. The damage estimations are based on standard valuation methods published in the national Official Gazette. The data set contains information that provide damage assessment, but also gives grounds for compensation of farmers who were most affected. There is an urgent need to mitigate the effects of natural disasters in the agricultural sector, as well as highlight the need of permanent prevention and insurance practices in the sector

SMALL BERRY FRUIT FARMS AND DIVERSIFICATION POTENTIAL ON REDUCTION OF PRODUCTION RISK

A significant number of small farms in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) produce berry fruits. Some of them achieve good economic results, however many have significant potential for further improvement. Due to several beneficial factors, many farms decide for cultivation of a single berry fruit activity, however this decision implies a potential risk in case of unfavourable production or market conditions for that crop. The aim of this analysis is therefore to observe the extent of risk reduction by application of different diversification strategies, using two types of berry fruits; and the most efficient production plans for such a farm from a risk perspective. A linear program was utilized to prepare an optimal production plan, while quadratic risk programming served to analyse risk. Results show that diversification could be a significantly important possibility for risk reduction on such farm type. It is possible to reduce risk with capital and labour less intensive production activities. Production of the highly intensive strawberry variety Clery has highest Estimated Gross Margin (EGM), but is also associated with very high risk. If one includes raspberries or blueberries into the production plan, it is possible to significantly reduce risk while almost keeping EGM at the same level. On the other hand, if the farmer is risk averse, the highest opportunity cost for risk reduction on such a farm type is in production of raspberry and blueberry, where it is necessary to give up 3.25 EUR on average for decreasing risk for one EUR. In the other two scenarios, production of strawberry – blueberry and strawberry – raspberry, risk gradient values are almost the same with amount 2.57 EUR sand 2.56 EUR, respectively.&nbsp

WHOLE FARM REVENUE INSURANCE AS A NEW MODEL OF CROP INSURANCE

Agricultural production is a specific area of business that is strongly influenced by natural, climatic, market, financial and institutional factors. These are all hazards not depending on the will of man and his activities, and it is necessary to foresee them and to insure against them. Crop and fruit insurance is the most effective risk management instrument in open field crop production. The aim of this paper is to present a new model of crop insurance which began to apply in 2015 in the United States. Every farm, by its implementation, provides farm’s expected total revenue that may be affected by the operation of both natural and climate risks, and market risks too, which are manifested through fluctuations in market prices. In this way all farm crops are insured against any risks with just one policy. Analyzed farm has experienced revenue loss due to drought, therefore it has indemnity right in the amount of 2,500 €. Premium costs amount to 330 €

NETWORKS IN THE MACEDONIAN ORGANIC PRODUCTION CONTEXT

Economic performance and competiveness of commercial farms, in producing and selling organic products, is often dependent on the structure of networks and the organization of supply chains. Networks play an important role in information dissemination, particularly in the otherwise scarce information flow in rural areas. Informal networks are in most cases a valuable source of social capital and information exchange. The aim of this paper is to understand network and stakeholder position and relations in the information channels among the actors in the supply chain for organic productions, by mapping information diffusion on horizontal level - farmer’s relations with other farmers. A survey on 122 organic farms was carried out in 2018 in the Republic of North Macedonia. The data were processed in UCINET. Mapping social capital structure contributes in identifying key individuals (social capital hubs), that can be activated for information dissemination and ultimately for active mobilization of organic production networks. The findings confirm that farmers with similar production type are more likely to cooperate and share information among each other

Optimizacija proizvodnje na farmama za proizvodnju povrća u Republici Makedoniji

The aim of the paper is to develop an optimization model to support the analysis of decision-making on Macedonian family farms. Normative linear programming paradigm is applied, utilising its optimization potential. The model is applied on a hypothetical vegetable farm case. The optimal structure in all scenarios indicates that the optimal solution is the production of tomato, pepper, cabbage, carrot and bean. The base scenario reveals a gross margin of 17,924 € which is highest compared to other scenarios. The working capital available is a binding constraint in second and third scenario, where the optimal solution reveals that the land resource is not exhausted. Gross margin sensitivity was examined using the working capital parameterisation. The model is quite flexible thus enabling different crop enterprises to be added additionally.Cilj ovoga rada jest razvijanje modela optimiranja kako bi se pružila potpora analizi donošenja odluka na makedonskim obiteljskim farmama. Primijenjen je normativni obrazac linearnog programiranja, pri čemu se koristio njegov potencijal optimiranja. Model je primjenjen na hipotetski slučaj farme za proizvodnju povrća. Optimalna struktura, prema svim scenarijima, ukazuje da je optimalno rješenje proizvodnja rajčice, paprike, kupusa, mrkve i graha. Osnovni scenarij ukazuje da je bruto marža od 17,924 € najviša u odnosu na ostale scenarije. Postojeći obrtni kapital obvezujuće je ograničenje u drugom i trećem scenariju, u kojima optimalno rješenje ukazuje da zemljišni resursi nisu iscrpljeni. Osjetljivost na bruto maržu ispitivala se parametrizacijom obrtnog kapitala. Ovaj model je prilično fleksibilan, tako da pruža mogućnost naknadnog dodavanja poduzeća koja se bave proizvodnjom različitih kultura

ЕКОНОМСКА ПЕРСПЕКТИВА НА ИНТЕЛЕКТУАЛНАТА СОПСТВЕНОСТ ВО ЗЕМЈОДЕЛСКО-ПРЕХРАНБЕНИОТ СЕКТОР

The negotiations of the Republic of Macedonia to join the European Union imposed an established strong system of intellectual property and their implementation in practice. Although the country has had a progress in the harmonization of the legal system, still there is low awareness of the economic benefits of protecting intellectual property rights (IPR), particularly in the agri-food sector. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the importance of IPR protection and experience of some Balkan and EU countries in terms of IPR enforcement, with particular reference to agro- food sector. The situation regarding IPR protection varies considerably in different countries. In Republic of Macedonia, the interest in protecting different IPR is related to the structure of production capacity. The previous experience in the domestic market shown that usually the larger and more successful agri - food enterprises pay more attention to the protection of IPR, thus constantly investing in marketing and product differentiation. Small enterprices often faced financial barriers and low budgets allocated for marketing and therefore the commitment to IPR is commonly viewed as an investment that engages additional costs

Assessing technical efficiency of vegetable farms in North Macedonia

Farm economic performance measuring is important for farm management purposes and for assessing the impact of agricultural policy measures. Efficiency studies enable assessment of farm performance since highly efficient farms are considered to have higher potential for operating in a changing economic and technological environment. The aim of this paper is to assess the technical efficiency of vegetable farms in North Macedonia, utilising Data Envelopment Analysis, as a non-parametric approach estimating the relative efficiency of decision making units producing multiple outputs and using multiple inputs. The analysis is based on Farm Monitoring System data including 75 vegetable farms in 2011 survey. Apart from baseline scenario, additional scenarios include available agricultural policy support in 2011 and 2016. The average technical efficiency of vegetable farms is 0.62 considering constant returns to scale, i.e. 0.71 and 0.75 considering variable returns to scale (in output and input oriented perspective, respectively). With better farm management, technical efficiency score can be improved on average by 25%. Technical efficiency increases slightly with subsidies, on average by 2 to 3%. Analyses based on farm level data, are valuable when estimating the effects of implementation of agricultural policy as well as when creating new policy interventions

Profitability of carp production in Macedonia and Serbia

Macedonia and Serbia are countries with long tradition in freshwater carp production. In this study, the aim is to assess the carp fish production economics, with particular focus on profitability. The findings revealed that carp production is profitable in both cases, though with better returns in the Macedonian case with the rate of profitability being 17.18%, in comparison to 8.10% at the Serbian farm. The full cost of production per kg is €2.56 and €2.25 in Macedonia and Serbia, respectively. The current profitability levels are highly sensitive to market price fluctuations, and there is considerable room for yield improvement and costs reductions