Ageing of farmers in the Czech republic and the support from the EU funds

The age structure of managers of agricultural holdings is not favourable in the Czech Republic and follows the general trend of population ageing. The lack of young farmers represents a threat to generation renewal and the competitiveness of the sector, as younger farmers tend to be more open to innovation and more often learn new approaches to farming and business. Therefore, the European Union supports generation renewal through Common Agricultural Policy instruments – direct payments and investment subsidies from the Rural Development Pro-gramme. The aim of the paper is to assess the ageing of the farm manager population and to evaluate whether the support from the EU is well targeted on the regional level based on correlation analysis. Using statistical and ad-ministrative data, we find that the subsidies from the Rural Development Programme in the year 2016 were granted in line with the seriousness of the ageing problem. When there was a larger share of older farmers in a region, the share of young farmers supported was larger. Vice versa, the correlation coefficient between the share of supported farmers and the share of young farmers in the region is negative, meaning that the greater was the share of young farmers, the smaller was the share of supported farmers

Implications of the SARS-Cov-2 Pandemic for Mortality Forecasting: Case Study for the Czech Republic and Spain

The current pandemic situation of SARS-Cov-2 is negatively influencing people worldwide, and leading to high mortality and excess mortality, due to more reasons than only the disease itself. Thus, forecasting of the mortality rates and consequent population projections would have been complicated since 2020. Paper models mortality in the Czech Republic and Spain and assesses the possible impact of the COVID-19 on the forecasts. We use a Lee–Carter model and apply it to data from 1981 to 2019 (forecast A) and 1981 to 2020 (forecast B). Our results show differences in forecasts up to 2030 by mean square difference. The highest is in ages above 50 for Spain, where it was observed that the COVID-19 pandemic affected the mortality rates in a way that they were higher, and decreased at a slower pace than they would without taking 2020 into account. In the Czech Republic (CR), the forecast does not seem to be affected yet, but it could be in the future when the number of deaths (not only due to COVID-19, but altogether) increases significantly. Nevertheless, we have to verify our preliminary results on real data as soon as they are available

BARIERY WEJŚCIA DLA MŁODYCH ROLNIKÓW – CZY ZALEŻĄ OD WIELKOŚCI GOSPODARSTWA?

Young farmers must overcome certain barriers when entering the sector. The aim is to evaluate the main obstacles with setting up of farming business and to assess whether the entry barriers of young farmers depend on the size of a farm. We use data from electronic survey among 510 young farmers in the Czech Republic. Average size of the farm was between 0 to 1000 ha (average 42.4 ha). The farmers were divided into categories: from 0 to 5 ha – small, over 5 ha to 50 ha – medium, and over 50 ha – large. Young farmers assessed the difficulties, which they had to overcome, when starting-up a farm on a scale from 1 (this was certainly a barrier) to 4 (it was not a huge barrier) and 0 (it is not my case). The average score for each category and barrier was calculated. The highest barrier was administrative burden and purchase of agricultural land. Young farmers did not perceive strategic planning and purchase of livestock as big problem. Test in contingency table revealed that almost all types of barriers statistically significantly depended on the size of the farm. For small and middle farms is the most difficult to start-up their businesses but purchase of agricultural land and obtaining knowledge and experience is difficult for all farms similarly.Przy wchodzeniu do sektora młodzi rolnicy muszą pokonać pewne bariery. Celem pracy jest ocena głównych przeszkód w zakładaniu działalności rolniczej oraz ocena, czy bariery wejścia dla młodych rolników są uzależnione od wielkości gospodarstwa. W badaniu wykorzystano dane pochodzące z ankiety elektronicznej przeprowadzonej wśród 510 młodych rolników w Czechach. Średnia wielkość gospodarstwa wynosiła od 0 do 1 000 ha (średnio 42,4 ha). Rolników podzielono na kategorie: od 0 do 5 ha – mali, od 5 ha do 50 ha – średni i powyżej 50 ha – duzi. Młodzi rolnicy ocenili trudności, które musieli pokonać, gdy rozpoczynali prowadzenie gospodarstwa, w skali od 1 (zdecydowanie była to bariera) do 4 (nie była to istotna bariera) i 0 (to mnie nie dotyczy). Obliczono średnią punktację dla każdej kategorii i bariery. Największą barierę stanowiły obciążenia administracyjne i zakup gruntów rolnych. Młodzi rolnicy nie postrzegali planowania strategicznego i zakupu zwierząt gospodarskich jako znacznego problemu. Test w tabeli krzyżowej wykazał, że niemal wszystkie rodzaje barier w sposób istotny statystycznie były uzależnione od wielkości gospodarstwa. Najtrudniej jest rozpocząć działalność gospodarczą w przypadku małych i średnich gospodarstw rolnych, ale zakup gruntów rolnych oraz zdobycie wiedzy i doświadczenia są trudne dla wszystkich gospodarstw w podobnym stopniu

Entry Barriers for Young Farmers – Do They Depend on The Size of The Holding?

Young farmers must overcome certain barriers when entering the sector. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the main obstacles in starting a farming business and to assess whether the entry barriers faced by young farmers depend on the size of a farm. We used data from electronic survey conducted among 510 young farmers in the Czech Republic. The average size of a farm was between 0 to 1000 ha (on average 42.4 ha). The farmers were divided into the following categories: those with a holding from 0 to 5 ha – small, those with a holding of over 5 ha to 50 ha – medium, and those with a holding of over 50 ha – large. Young farmers assessed the difficulties, which they had to overcome when starting up a farm on a scale from 1 (this was certainly a barrier) to 4 (it was not a huge barrier) and 0 (it is not my case). The average score for each category and barrier was calculated. The highest barrier was administrative burden and the purchase of agricultural land. Young farmers did not perceive strategic planning and the purchase of livestock as a serious problem. The test in contingency table revealed that almost all types of barriers statistically significantly depended on the size of the farm. Starting a business is the most difficult problem for small and middle farms, but the purchase of an agricultural land and obtaining knowledge and experience is difficult for all farms to a similar axtent