Economic Effectiveness of Ecologically Acceptable Production of Vegetables in Protected Area

Subić, Jonel and Jeločnik, Marko (2019) Economic Effectiveness of Ecologically Acceptable Production of Vegetables in Protected Area. In: Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Terms of the Republic of Serbia Strategic Goals Realization within the Danube Region : sustainability and multifunctionality. Institute of Agricultural Economics, Belgrade, pp. 333-352. ISBN 978-86-6269-067-8

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Abstract

In the conditions of the growth of global population, among basic principles of agriculture, regardless of territorial level observed, the maintenance of food security, i.e. maintenance of sufficient quantity of food, at affordable prices, for each inhabitant, should be emphasized. Pressured with constant growth in the volume of industrial food production, the principle of food safety, i.e. maintenance of health-acceptable supplies of agricultural and food products to all categories of the population, is to some extent neglected. Whether organized in a protected area or in an open field, vegetable production is among the most intensive sectors of agriculture. At the national level, for many years vegetable production has been characterized with the constant growth in the production volume. Consumer requirements that determine the demand for vegetable, from the aspect of the variety and quality of offered products, are increasingly being profiled as a factor of sustainability of vegetable realization at local markets. Due to this, the producers are faced with the task to, in addition to the quantities, the delivery continuities, and the technological quality of vegetables, focus more on the specific nutrition and health safety of fresh vegetables and their processed products. Although the concept of vegetable production in line to environmental requirements is not of a recent date, up till today it hasn’t been adopted to a greater extent by vegetable producers. Further development and strengthening of the presence of ecologically oriented vegetable production in the open field or in a protected area, should provide positive implications for national agriculture by providing sufficient quantities of quality and health safety vegetables, as well as creation of a recognizable image of domestic vegetable producers, from the point of consistent adherence to the principles of good agricultural practice in the regional framework. According to basic goal of this paper, promotion of a health safe and ecologically acceptable vegetable production in a protected area, which provides economic benefits and the security of products realization for the vegetable producer, the research imposed the need to analyse the economic effects of ecologically acceptable vegetable production in relation to the conventional vegetable production. Accordingly, the necessary data were collected through an in-depth interview with members of selected family agricultural holdings specialized in the production of vegetables. Most of gained data are directly related to 2018, while some represent a reflection of the interpreter’s assessment or scientifically verified standards in vegetable production. Starting from the fact that the basic representativeness of producers is provided by their long tradition in vegetable production, as well as their production orientation, selected agricultural holdings were categorized as family agricultural holding A (engaged in ecologically acceptable vegetable production) and family agricultural holding B (engaged in conventional vegetable production). The results obtained from the analytical calculation based on variable costs show that positive contribution margins have been achieved (in the case of a family agricultural holding A: 27.815,00 RSD/are, or in the case of family agricultural holding B: 28.896,65 RSD/are). As opposed to conventional production, ecologically acceptable vegetable production (tomatoes) achieved better yields (total 1.170 kg/are compared to 1.130 kg/are) and higher sales prices on the market (average of 64,76 RSD/kg compared to average of 45,00 RSD/kg). On the other hand, conventional production is characterized by considerably lower variable costs which led to a better gross financial result, primarily due to the large share of laboratory analyses (52,13%) in the variable costs structure in ecologically acceptable vegetable production.

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