The presented paper aims to evaluate the development and competitiveness of agri-food foreign trade of the Slovak Republic for the period 2016 – 2020. In the article, we present the priorities of Slovakia within the commodity structure. We use the RCA indicator to identify comparative advantages. In this paper, we also compare the actual and estimated development of agri-food foreign trade of the Slovak Republic in the years 2018 – 2020. Based on the reached results, we can state that we achieve an ever-increasing trade balance deficit in agri-food foreign trade. Produced results confirmed all the research assumptions presented in the paper. Despite the increase in export and import of agri-food products, the negative trade balance is still deeper. A significant deviation of real development from the predicted values can be explained by the influence of the worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus COVID-19, which slowed down the possible further development of agricultural trade.
Ecological management of semi natural grassland was evaluated in three-year long vegetative cycle in locality Chvojnica (Strážovská vrchovina). Experimental treatments were studied in variant 1-unfertilized, variant 2-30 kg*ha-1 of P and 60 kg*ha-1 of K, treatment 3-PK + 90kg*ha-1 of N. Vegetation in all treatments of fertilization was cut three times in haymaking time of ripening. The aim of research was to find changes in phytocenology, production, nutrition and economy under different treatments of fertilization, cutting and experimental years. In the structure of semi natural grass vegetation, grasses dominated in the first cuttings, clovers dominated in the second cuttings and other meadow herbs dominated in the third cuttings. Application of fertilizers increases production of dry mass. Non fertilized grass vegetation produced 3.43-5.16 t*ha-1 of dry mass, vegetation with added PK fertilizers 4.71-5.91 t*ha-1 of dry mass and vegetation 7.12-7.97 t*ha-1 of dry mass. Costs per 1 ha and 1 ton of hay and sales per 1 ha increased in the following sequence: var. 1 var. 2 var. 3. As for the profit, the most effective variants were variant 1 (256.79 EUR per ha) and variant 3 (227.34 EUR per ha). The least effective variant was the variant fertilized by PK (180.62 EUR per ha).
The issues of nutrition and fertilization of meadow phytocenosis with the emphasis on the production effectiveness and economic effectiveness were observed at the low, medium and high intensity of fertilization using artificial fertilizers. The obtained results are based on the research of valley meadows (series A), mountainous meadows (series B) and semi-natural and additionally sown and ploughed mountainous meadows (series C). In series A, in the observed period, the production effectiveness reached 14.93-23.76 kg of hay and the economic effectiveness reached 1.07-1.43 €. The higher production effectiveness and economic effectiveness are produced by doses of nutrients in the ratio N : P : K -1 : 0.35 : 0.5. The highest production effectiveness and economic effectiveness were determined in variants fertilized by lower doses of artificial fertilizers (variants 7 and 12). The influence of PK and NPK nutrients on the production effectiveness and economic effectiveness of fertilization of different grasslands in different altitudes was observed in series B: the higher the altitude (from 350 to 850 meters above the sea level), the lower the indicators of production and economic effectiveness of artificial fertilizers. In series C, the loss of phosphoric and potassic nutrition is represented by higher inputs than outputs. Semi-natural grasslands and ploughed grasslands fertilized by medium and high intensity of NPK fertilizers (var.3-90 N kg*ha -1 + PK a var.4-180 N kg*ha -1 + PK) are economically effective.
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