Protection of rights of minority shareholders

Katedra obchodního právaDepartment of Business LawFaculty of LawPrávnická fakult

Soil Degradation and Soil Value in Slovakia – Two Problems with Common Denominator

Soil use is oft en accompanied by its degradation. Immediate reason of soil degradation in agriculture is the non-respecting the principles of good agricultural practice. Giving long-term precedence to production function over remaining ecological ones as well as supporting the land consumption for economy development by governmental bodies are next reasons of soil degradation and mirror the societal values and priorities. Soil provides many services that in soil science are defined as soil functions. Besides biomass production the soil provides ecological and socio-economic functions. Use of soil and its functions is closely linked to soil ecological, societal and economic values. Preference to economic interests together with reluctance to search compromise solutions is oft en manifesting in soil degradation. Economic valuation of soil and its ecological functions is considered a possible way for improvement of soil protection especially in modification of soil price at its permanent consumption. In spite of that financial values can not be used as a base for forming of ethical values, which are imminently connected with human approach towards soil and its degradation, and which are essentially needed by global society. Ethical human values, based on basic beliefs and convictions, influence of human attitude to the soil, and they influence on soil use can be considered as common denominator of soil degradation and soil value, respectively

Integrated index of agricultural soil quality in Slovakia

On the basis of existing spatial databases and maps of soil parameters relating to production, environmental parameters and soil threats, indices of agricultural soil quality in Slovakia were developed and their distribution shown on maps. Existing maps of agricultural soil properties in vector format developed at the Soil Science and Conservation Research Institute in Bratislava were used. Unlike many quality evaluations of agricultural soils, the indices developed here take into account other parameters, not only production but also environmental and risk factors. The results show that in Slovakia 1.0% of agricultural soils are of very high quality, 30.3% are of high quality, 37.9% are of medium quality, 30.5% are of low quality and 0.3% are of very low quality

SELECTED SPECIFIC FOODS AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS WITH PROTECTED DESIGNATION IN REGIONS OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC AS A MEMBER STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Foodstuffs and agricultural products with origins in individual regions of Slovakia constitute historically a specific part of the food assortment existing in Europe. Accession of Slovakia to the EU means an option for the country to protect its regional specialities, foodstuffs and agricultural products on the level of the European Union by inclusion of these products into the quality scheme. The registration of such items is carried out pursuant the Regulation (EU) No. 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs and Regulation (EU) 668/2014 effective from 3 January 2013. Quality policy of the EU is based on the philosophy of quality development of original, traditional agricultural products and foodstuffs, their protection and promotion of sale, what also means support to the regions where they are produced. The quality scheme has been created as a counter-measure to the increasing trade with faked products and foods misusing the traditional names of original products. The quality policy of the European Union accepts, protects, promotes, registers, and controls agricultural products and foodstuffs under three categories: 1. Protected designation of origin (PDO), 2. Protected geographical indication (PGI), and 3. Traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG). As of 31 January 2018, the Slovak Republic has registered 2 PDO products, 10 PGI products and 7 TGS products. The principal objective of the article is to identify and characterize regions of selected agricultural foodstuffs and products registered in categories PDO

Characteristics of Soil Parameters of Agricultural Land Use Types, Their Location and Development Forecast

In this paper we point out the basic soil parameters characterizing current arable land, permanent grassland, vineyards, and orchards in Slovakia. While the area of permanent land use types is more or less stable, there is a noticeable decrease in the area of arable land. In Slovakia, arable land is located mainly on the plain. The value of its production potential is 67 points (the highest quality soil has 100 points). Permanent grassland is found at higher altitudes on slopes, with a higher gravel content, and the value of their production potential is 35 points. Vineyards are predominantly located in the warm regions of southern Slovakia on the middle slopes. These soils are generally loamy, without significant gravel content, and the value of their production potential is 59 points. Most orchards are located on the plains. The soils are predominantly loamy and deep, without significant gravel content, and the value of their production potential is 63 points. Characteristics of agricultural land use types were determined using vector databases of soil parameters obtained from Soil Science and Conservation Research Institute information systems and a current vector layer for identification of agriculturally used soils, the Land Parcel Identification System, using geographic information systems. Moreover, our analysis tries to determine what developments can be expected in the use of four agricultural land use types. The modeling assumptions concern the future performance of these variables using exponential smoothing and Box–Jenkins methodology

Geospatial Approaches to Monitoring the Spread of Invasive Species of <i>Solidago</i> spp.

Global climate change influences plant invasion which spreads all over the Europe. Invasive plants are predominantly manifest negative impacts, which require increased attention not only from ecologists. The research examines the possibilities offered by geospatial technologies in mapping the spatial spread of invasive plants of the genus Solidago. Invasive plant population was investigated at two localities, Malý Šariš and Chminianska Nová Ves in Slovakia, as well as the mapping of the area by multispectral imaging to determine the spectral reflectance curve of the monitored plant species. Using spatial analyses in the geographic information system, we evaluated changes in the plant density in the two localities. Based on the obtained results, we found that the number of individuals (ramets) in the Malý Šariš is significantly increasing, while in the examined area of Chminianska Nová Ves, there is a decrease in the number of Solidago spp. in the last monitored year. At the same time, we can state that in the areas with the highest increase in the number of ramets, the highest plant density per hectare was also recorded. We can also say that due to the spectral proximity of the surrounding vegetation, the spectral resolution in four spectral bands is insufficient for the classification of multispectral records in the case of Solidago spp. and cannot replace the advantages of high spectral resolution hyperspectral imaging, which significantly refines the feature space for Solidago spp. and the surrounding vegetation

Optimising Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Cultivation by Selection of Proper Soils

This paper presents an attempt to differentiate the Slovak rural landscape with respect to the possibility of effective potato cultivation and to characterise soil parameters of current potato cultivation areas with the aim to increase the sustainability of the potato production. The selection was based on soil climatic, production and economic parameters. By using the GIS tools and existing databases on soil characteristics in Slovakia, maps of soil suitability categories for potato cultivation were generated. In Slovakia, it was found that 12.3% of farmland is very suitable for potato cultivation and that as much as 43.1% is not suitable. Later, the specified categories were characterised in detail and specified with respect to geographic, soil, climatic, production and economic parameters. Currently, most potato crops are cultivated on Cambisols (27%), Chernozems (20%) and Fluvisols (18%). Loamy soils (content of particles &lt;0.01 mm is 30&ndash;45%), soils without gravel (gravel content in the depth 0.0&ndash;0.6 m is &lt;10%), deep soils (&gt;0.6 m) and soil situated on plains (slope 0&deg;&ndash;3&deg;) are dominant in these regions. We suggest that potato cultivation should be concentrated on the most suitable areas, thereby increasing the economic profitability, improving the ecological stability of the country and supporting the sustainability of the agriculture

Residual plant nutrients in crop residues – an important resource

With increasing demand for sustainable production, the need to effectively utilise site-based resources increases. One such resource is the remaining crop residues, both above and below ground, after harvest. In order to assess the magnitude of this resource, this study determined the plant nutrient contribution of residues from 17 different crops in seven different regions of Slovakia over a nine-year period. The soil profile 0.0–0.3 m was taken into account at belowground residues sampling. The results showed that winter rape, mustard, corn maize, triticale, winter rye with straw and sunflower left the most residues, exceeding 8 tons of dry biomass per hectare. Root crops (sugar beet, potatoes) and peas left less than 3 tons of residual dry biomass per hectare. Using these data, the nutrient potential coefficient, i.e. the amount of nutrients left by production of one ton of the main product was calculated by polynomial regression. With these coefficients and the known yield of a given crop, it was possible to calculate how much nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium each crop leaves in the soil after harvest. It was found that the amount of nitrogen left ranged from 20 to 132 kg, phosphorus from 2 to 24 kg and potassium from 13 to 218 kg per hectare. This has to be taken into account when calculating the fertiliser requirement of the subsequent crop in order to achieve better resource utilisation, thereby reducing the risk of eutrophication and improving farm profits by reducing expenditure on fertiliser

Geomorphological Processes at the Industrial Sludge Landfill in Sered, Slovakia

The principal aim of the study is to identify the nature and causes of changes to the surface of a landfill body of waste from nickel production located in the industrial zone of the town of Sereď (Slovak Republic). This change is related to natural and anthropogenic geomorphological processes characteristic of the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. The landfill is an accumulative anthropogenic form of relief, and its body is composed from an artefact-metallurgical sludge, which has specific properties. The landfill constitutes a strange shape of relief at the Danubian Plane, which attracts attention with its physiognomy and also with the black color of the material significantly. It formed during the 30-year-long existence of the nickel smelter plant (1963–1993) and remained in this location, until the present day, for another 28 years after the end of production. Since 1994, the landfill has been the property of a private company that mines sludge in order to obtain residual metals