Roman Svoboda

Increase in prices of farmland in the Czech Republic

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to express the development of market price of farmland in the CR and to describe causes and effects of these changes in the price on the ownership of land in the country. Design/methodology/approach Primarily, description methods (especially for describing the creation of investment farmland funds) and a comparative analysis (in the case of an indicator of the farmland prices in the Czech Republic) were used in this paper. Findings The findings show that the situation in the Czech agricultural sector has improved particularly due to increasing subsidies; non-agricultural subjects are showing increased interest and banks are changing their approach to granting loans for the purchase of farmland. The market price of farmland in the Czech Republic has been rising; in 2015, it exceeded CZK162,500 per hectare on average. However, it is still low compared to the old EU member states. Practical implications Practical implication of the paper consists in comparing market prices of farmland with prices at which state sold farmland through PRGLF. Plot owners are often approached about the sale or lease of farmland. However, there are many speculators among those interested in buying, who often focus on those owners who have no idea regarding the value of their plots. Originality/value In the paper, the model of farmland prices was newly used and applied to real data in the Czech Republic from 2004 to 2015. Moreover, current data on investments to farmland were acquired, and an analysis which could be useful for foreign investors was elaborated.

The competition on wine markets in the Czech Republic

ABSTRACT The purpose of the article is the elaboration of suggestions leading to the improvement of the Czech viticulture position on wine markets by means of the analysis of the development of the contemporary state of viticulture and consumption of wine in the Czech Republic (CR). The methodology of the following study comes from the comparison of data about the vine-growing and wine production of the Czech Republic, description of the EU legislature and authors’ own findings about consumers’ preferences in the consumption of wines in the Czech Republic. Then the follow-up analysis will become the basis for the elaboration of recommendation towards the improvement of the Czech viticulture position on the global wine market. The state wants to keep employment in the field of viticulture to support the position of the Czech wine on foreign markets and to support young vintners up to 40 years old through the programme of subsidies into vine-growing and wine-making. Domestic production of wine, which is preferred by consumers, has not satisfied even the third of the demand for wines in the Czech Republic. The average annual consumption of wine has reached 20 L per person.

Using E-Learning in Teaching Economics at Universities of the Czech Republic

The rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICT) allows their use in all areas of human activity. An increasing number of university students is also reflected in the conditions of the universities in the Czech Republic. However, current financial possibilities of the educational and research capacities of departments do not suffice to a rapid increase in the number of students. A solution can be the introduction of ICT into a teaching process; computers save time for both the teachers and students while enabling intensive use of space and simplifying the administration of tests. The paper aims to express the impact of using ICT on level of knowledge, respectively classification of university students enrolled in course Economics on the example of e-learning system Moodle. A partial aim of the study is the generalization of experience with learning management systems and the expression of their positives and negatives. As shown by our research the introduction of smart education from 2006 to 2015 first led to a drop and subsequently to an improvement in the quality of the students’ performance.