Macedonia, as a candidate country to the EU and a member of the WTO is in need of a comprehensive, transparent, and internationally comparable assessment of the support to agriculture in the country. OECD that has been measuring support to agriculture on a yearly basis, in its member countries as well as some other countries since the mid-1980s offers a good tool for such a task. The method is known for its most important indicator, the Producer Support Estimate (PSE). Using this method, data on Macedonian agricultural policy measures, in place – partly or entirely - for the period 1999 to 2004, have been gathered and categorized in order to arrive at an estimate of the level of support. This report presents the main findings of this assessment.
The SURE-Farm project aims to analyse, assess and improve the resilience and sustainability of farming systems in Europe. Farming systems face a whole range of social, ecological, economic and political disturbances and changes, such as sharp market fluctuations, severe weather events, climate change, new technologies, changes in consumer preferences and in governance structures and so forth, operating at a range of scales (local, regional, national and global). Some stresses on the farm system can be predicted (e.g. retirement of farmers), while other shocks are more uncertain and unpredictable (e.g. flooding, sudden price drop, illness). Project's WP2 aims to comprehensively understand farmers' risk behaviour and risk management (RM) decisions, and to develop and test RM strategies and decision support tools that farmers can use to cope with increasing economic, environmental and social uncertainties and risks. WP2 contributes to the development of RM in EU farming systems by understanding and eliciting farmers' risk perceptions and preferences; learning about farmers' adaptive behaviour; learning capacity and preferred improvements of current RM tools; designing and analysing improved strategies to deal with extreme weather; and co-creating improved RM tools and map-related institutional challenges.
Governments and organisations have set targets for increased food production as a result of an increasing population. In order to increase food production, the capacity of agricultural enterprises needs to be expanded. The Swedish agricultural industry expresses difficulties in finding labour, which prevent businesses from expanding, or that companies must settle with less skilled employees. In order to respond to the set targets of increased food production, agricultural companies need to be better able to attract and retain employees. The average age is high among employees in Swedish agriculture while the portion of young employees is declining. Since young peoples are the new generation of employees, they are of particular interest to agricultural companies to hire. One way to address the problem of finding and retaining workforce is through marketing. Employer branding is a marketing concept that includes how companies can attract and retain employees. Businesses can develop its employer brand by knowing what attributes of employer branding that are valued by their existing employees. This study aims to investigate how young employees value employer branding attributes in the Swedish agricultural sector. This study applies a qualitative approach with case study design. The case studies consist of nine cases involving nine different young employees from agricultural companies in the region of Mälardalen. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews based on an interview guide with questions to get the young employees' thoughts and answers. A conceptual framework has been developed to analyze the collected data. The framework is evolved from existing knowledge of employer branding. The framework is based on the analytical categories; work content, affiliation, compensation, career, benefits, all of which are considered to contain attributes that affect a company's Employer brand. The collected data has been analyzed with thematic encoding and divided into themes. The study shows that young employees value several attributes of employer branding in their employment. Identified attributes that are valued are found in all analytical categories from the developed framework. In addition to identifying valued attributes and making suggestions for how employer branding practices can be developed, the study contributes to an expanded understanding of employer branding in the context of agricultural companies. Most attributes can be influenced by the employer. By using the results of this study, agricultural companies can develop their employer brand. This can lead to development and increase of agricultural businesses' production. ; Regeringar och organisationer har satt upp mål om en ökad livsmedelsproduktion till följd av en stigande befolkning. För att livsmedelsproduktionen ska kunna öka behöver kapaciteten hos lantbruksföretag utvecklas genom nya investeringar. Nya investeringar är beroende av input resurser så som tillgång till relevant arbetskraft. Den svenska lantbruksbranschen uttrycker svårigheter i att hitta arbetskraft, vilket leder till att expandering av verksamheten hindras, eller att företag får nöja sig med sämre kompetens bland. För att kunna bemöta den framtida förväntansbilden om en ökad livsmedelsproduktion behöver lantbruksföretag bli bättre på att attrahera och bibehålla anställda. Det råder idag en hög medelålder bland anställda i svenskt lantbruk, samtidigt som andelen yngre i lantbruket minskar. Eftersom unga personer är den nya generationen anställda, är de av speciellt intresse för lantbruksföretag att anställa. Ett sätt att adressera problemet med att hitta och bibehålla personal är genom marknadsföring. Employer branding är ett marknadsföringsverktyg som innefattar hur företag kan attrahera och bibehålla anställda. Företag kan utveckla sitt employer brand genom att förstå vilka egenskaper av employer branding som värderas av deras befintliga anställda. Den här studien syftar till att undersöka hur unga anställda värderar egenskaper av employer branding i den svenska lantbrukssektorn. Den här studien tillämpar ett kvalitativt angreppssätt med fallstudiedesign. Fallstudierna består av nio fall innehållande nio olika unga anställda från lantbruksföretag i Mälardalen. Empiri har samlats in genom semistrukturerade telefonintervjuer. Ett konceptuellt ramverk har utvecklats för att analysera den insamlade empirin. Det konceptuella ramverket bygger på existerande kunskap om employer branding. Ramverket baseras på de analytiska kategorierna; arbetsinnehåll, erkännande, kompensation, karriär, förmåner och utveckling, som alla anses innehålla egenskaper som påverkar ett företags employer brand. Den insamlade empirin har analyserats med tematisk kodning och delats in i teman. Studien visar att unga anställda värderar flera egenskaper av employer branding i sin anställning. Identifierade egenskaper som värderas återfinns i alla analytiska kategorier från det framtagna ramverket. Förutom att identifiera värden, och komma med förslag till hur utövande av employer braning kan utvecklas, bidrar studien till en utökad förståelse av employer branding i kontexten av lantbruksföretag. Genom att använda resultaten i den här studien, kan lantbruksföretag utveckla sitt employer brand. Detta kan leda till att lantbruksföretag kan utvecklas och öka sin produktion.
