Abstract:
Organic agriculture in the Czech Republic is taking
on a greater importance: the
number of the organic farms is increasing and the a
vailability of bio products is rising
too. The aim of this study was to evaluate and comp
are the economic situation of organic,
biodynamic, and conventional farms by using financi
al analysis indicators, performance
indicators, economic efficiency indicator, and mult
idimensional intercompany
comparison methods. Furthermore, the subsidies impa
ct on farms’ profits, sales, and
return on assets indicators by a linear regression
model with AR (AutoRegressive 1)
process was analyzed. A total of 389 Czech farms re
ceiving subsidies from 2007 to 2012
were selected. From these, 273 farms were conventio
nal, 112 organic, and 4 biodynamic.
Organic farms were the most profitable and got the
best results on the economic
efficiency indicator and took the first place in th
e intercompany comparison. Subsidies
worsen the organic farms’ economic situation, howev
er, without statistical significance.
Biodynamic farms received the highest amount of sub
sidies. In some years, these farms
did not gain profit. Despite the worst results of e
conomic efficiency indicator, biodynamic
farms were placed as second in the intercompany com
parison. Subsidies improved the
biodynamic farms’ economic situation (statistically
insignificant) and could play a role as
a motivating factor. Conventional farms had the hig
hest values of input and output
indicators (except profit) and they received the lo
west amount of subsidies. Subsidies had
a statistically significantly positive effect on th
e profitability of these farms, though with a
negative effect on sales.
Keywords:
Agricultural enterprises, Autoregressive model, Eff
iciency, Linear regression
model, Czech Republic
