Economics Of Agricultural Production In Slovakia: Development And Perspectives

The agricultural sector is a branch of the national economy whose main task is to provide food for the population. At the same time, the needs of humanity are constantly increasing, which is linked both to population growth and to improvements in the quality of life. To solve these problems, it is necessary to rationalize the forms of combining factors of production and their qualitative and quantitative ratio in the production process in agriculture based on the measurement of production dependencies. Modern trends in the development of the agricultural sector in Slovakia appeared in the 90s of the 20th century. Between 1990 and 1999, Slovakia's agriculture was transformed under new market conditions in order to achieve greater efficiency and productivity. During the economic crisis, unemployment increased, stocks of products decreased, the management structure changed and support from the state decreased, which led to the formation of a market-oriented agriculture. Following Slovakia's accession to the EU, it assumed new obligations in the field of environmental legislation. Slovakia got the opportunity to use EU funds to increase the efficiency and productivity of agricultural production and improve the quality of life of the rural population. The main goal was to analyze the trends in the development of the agricultural economy in Slovakia, to identify existing problems and ways to solve them, to describe the prospects for improving agricultural production. One of the promising areas for the development of agriculture in Slovakia is the bioeconomy, which is able to solve some of the problems and introduce new and improved methods to improve the efficiency of agricultural production. The indicators of the development of agriculture in Slovakia over the past 20 years show a relatively stable development. The general dynamics reflects a decrease in the productivity and efficiency of agriculture, a decrease in labor productivity, and the insecurity of the domestic market with food. To do this, it is necessary to adhere to new CAP and RDP policy principles and introduce more effective incentive measures from the state and new ones to bring the productivity of agricultural labor and its efficiency to the average European level.