Seasons of Drought in Slovakia During the Period from 1957 to 2016

The aim of the paper was to describe the occurrence of dry seasons in Slovakia. Dry seasons in the period from 1957 to 2016 were determined according to the monthly Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). For this purpose, ten sites based on limit climatic parameters were chosen – Bratislava, Piešťany, Hurbanovo, Čadca, Sliač, Boľkovce, Poprad, Košice, Milhostov, and Kamenica nad Cirochou. The results showed the alternation of dry and wet episodes and the variability of weather not only over time, but also over space. The analysis of linear trends showed that the arid trend was identified on most sites (9 localities).

Adverse and Beneficial Effects of Woody Biomass Feedstock Plantations on Biodiversity and Wildlife Habitats

Woody biomass feedstock is suitable for direct combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, ethanol or methanol production yielding heat, charcoal, pyrolysis oil, green electricity and bio-propellants. However, there are several issues concerning the environmental, social and economic sustainability of woody biomass production connected to land use, protection of wildlife habitats, conservation and remediation of landscapes. Establishing energy plantations on arable lands or on grasslands is generally considered as working against nature conservation, while setting them up in polluted areas or wastelands could be advantageous for wildlife, because of 1. more permanent cover that provides shelter and biomass for feeding, which is especially important in winter periods; 2. higher architectural complexity of vegetation providing more place for nesting and feeding for wildlife; 3. exploiting the advantages of root filtration, phytoremediation, or using less chemicals; 4. forbs in the undergrowth and young shoots able to provide better quality food for wildlife than the intensive monocultures. The solution is a complex management system, including land use, phytoremediation, waste and wastewater management and ecosystem-based planning incorporated in one dynamic structure.

Financial and Personal Issues of the Transferred State Administration Competencies in the Building Procedure to Municipality Offices

The aim of the paper is to draw attention to consequences of the transfer of competency at the level of the building procedure from state authorities to municipal offices in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic. The defined research objective was achieved firstly by conducting controlled interviews with representatives of the building offices in the Nitra Region and, secondly, by analysis of financing of this competency from the obtained data from publicly available sources in both states. Secondly, the paper includes a comparison of the financial management of the transferred competencies at the level of the building procedure between the Nitra Region (Slovakia) and the Pardubice Region (Czech Republic). By conducting controlled interviews in the Nitra Region, we came to the conclusion of the financial under-dimensioning of this competency. By comparing the amount of state subsidies provided for the building procedure in both regions, significant differences were found. Based on our research findings, we recommend reassessing the state subsidies for the transferred competency in the field of building procedure.

Calorific Value of Basic Fractions of Above-Ground Biomass for Scots Pine

In this work, the calorific value content in the dry matter of the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) trees was evaluated. This dry matter was obtained only from the above-ground fractions of its biomass. Our experimental material was taken from five Scots pine trees situated in Slovakia. Wood and bark samples were obtained from the discs which were cut off from three locations, namely from the stem, branches of tree crowns and needles. Then, calorific value capacity (J g−1) in the dry matter of each sample was determined. The impact of statistically significant factors on the calorific value capacity was determined by means of analysis of variance. The average values are, according to the fractions, approximately in the range of 20,000–22,200 J g−1. The smallest capacity of the calorific value, approximately 20,000 J g−1, has the dry matter from bark obtained from the middle and crown parts of the stem. Then, the dry matter from stem wood and branches follows with a value of approximately 20,700 J g−1. Then follows dry matter of the coarse bark occurring on the stem butt and twigs that are covered with needles with a value of about 21,900 J g−1; and finally pine needles with the highest values of about 22,200 J g−1. The calorific value variability is relatively low with coefficients of variations of 0.9–2.8%.

Verification of the Green Microalgae Biomass Use for Biogas Production

The article reviews the energy potential of microalgae as an alternative raw material for anaerobic digestion. Currently, energy security is one of the main topics among researchers. The amount of generated fossil fuels is limited, it is a question of time when fossil fuels will not continue to be accessible at low cost. There is a need to find an alternative carrier of energy which will replace the fossil fuels in the World. Green microalgae can be proposed as a possible bio raw-material, which can be used as an input material in order to produce energy. Lots of alternative technologies of algae cultivation are currently being developed all over the world. There is a necessity to search for a sensible way to produce algal biomass for bioenergy purposes, while maintaining all requirements involved in environmental and economic issues. The research results presented in the science article show that microalgae biomass is the proper alternative material for biogas production with the method of anaerobic fermentation. We believe that these research results can contribute to the future development of all forms of renewable energy in the Slovak Republic.

Differences in Agricultural Support between Countries – The OECD Measurement

Countries provide different levels of support from public expenditures to farmers. Some countries subsidise their agricultural producers more significantly. On the other hand, other group of countries provides less support to their producers from public resources. Different international organisations and institutions provide their own indicators as in the case of the Oranisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD provides a comprehensive framework to measure the level of support and to identify its structure. This measurement provides a comparable review of support to agriculture from public budgets and helps to evaluate the transfers from taxpayers to producers or consumers. The aim of our work was to present this measurement framework, the differences in support between OECD and some non-OECD countries and to see if there is an evidence of development in level and/or in structure of supports in agriculture in the 2016, 2017 and 2018’s editions of OECD publications taken into consideration. The comparative analysis shows that not only the level, but the composition of support differes from country to country.

Entrepreneurship of Cities through Business Companies in the Slovak Republic

Local self-governments in the Slovak Republic have many possibilities to do business to capitalize their assets and generate their own budget revenues. The purpose of the article was to identify and evaluate business companies through which local selfgovernments conduct business from different perspectives. We focused on businesses with asset ownership of municipalities with city status. When analyzing businesses, we have taken into account their size, spatial layout, legal form, subject of activity, and their economy. Slovak cities have a long-term experience with conducting business through business companies. Most of these are companies with 100% ownership of the cities, in terms of the legal form of a limited liability company. The research results confirm that the significant effect of government-run business is the increase in the value of assets.

Energy Production Potential of Wood Biomass from SRC Plantations in Cadastral Area of Nové Zámky

The renewable energy sources play an important role in the discussions on the future energy generation. The European Union has set certain goals to increase the share of renewable energy sources and to reduce carbon emissions. The paper focuses on the evaluation of energy production from short rotation coppice (SRC) plantations in the cadastral area of Nové Zámky. The study area is located in south-western Slovakia. The energy production was evaluated based on GIS analysis of agricultural land suitable for establishment of short rotation coppice plantations. The high-quality arable land was excluded from the biomass production. The wood biomass should be produced on marginal, low-quality soils and contaminated or degraded land that is unsuitable for food production. There are only high and medium-quality soils classified in the qualitative groups 1–7 in the study area. The land potentially used for biomass production represents an area of 1,536 ha. If the whole area would be covered by short rotation coppice plantations, it would produce 4.8 kWh/day per person. Taking into consideration the overall losses of 33% in the process of the energy conversion, the potential power from the wood biomass production is 3.2 kWh/day per person. The plantations would provide 61 new jobs in the study area.

Evaluation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Operating in Short Supply Chains Within Slovak School Programmes

Despite of reduction of its share on the gross domestic product, agriculture remains a branch generating job opportunities in rural areas. However, through more intensive farming procedures, it puts a pressure on environment and sustainability of agricultural production and prolongs the distance of distributed goods. Reduction of the mentioned impacts is possible through shortening the food supply chain subsequently resulting in increase of local sale, demand for local services and increase of labour market, putting an emphasis on support of small and medium – sized enterprises and their economic viability improvement. This paper evaluates the performance of small and medium enterprises and micro-enterprises which applied for the support and supplied and distributed fruits, vegetables, milk and milk products to kindergartens and primary schools within the School Fruits and Vegetables and the School Milk programme. We suppose that through supplying local schools they contributed to the food supply chain shortening.

The Development of Chosen Social and Economic Indicators in Rural Areas of the Slovak Republic

The focus of the following article was to study development of certain social and economic indicators in Slovakia. We focused this paper on two types of regions in Slovakia, urban and rural. For this purpose we decided to measure the development of inhabitants in rural and urban areas as well as median age of the population. We also partially focused on the sector of agriculture since it used to play an important role in rural areas as a key employer. We found that there is a trend of moving people from urban to rural areas and that agriculture is losing its key role because of decreasing employment trend. This can be caused by low attractiveness of this sector and low income which, nowadays, plays an important role in finding a job.