agriculture

Farming is becoming a hot topic in the most powerful rooms in Brussels. But unlike those working in agriculture, EU politicians are oblivious to temperature change. The complexities of agriculture merit more attention from European politicians than what it currently gets.

In this episode, we talk about the Ukrainian grain crisis, its economic and political context, the role and response of Poland and other EU countries to the issue, and the way forward for Ukrainian-Polish relations.

You might be familiar with a popular phrase often used jokingly «The patient is more dead than alive». However, when used as an economic diagnosis for Ukraine, it is no laughing matter. Today\'s destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) is making an already very tough situation a lot worse for a number of reasons.

Of course, everyone would be delighted if the supermarkets were full of quality Slovak fruit, vegetables, meat, and other products. However, this ideal cannot be achieved by a policy of self-sufficiency, but by a policy of cooperation.

Global markets cannot ignore the impact of losing agricultural supply from Ukraine and Russia, and European agricultural authorities are well aware of the risk.

Rising consumer prices have become an important issue both in the world and in Slovakia. Although with the current single-digit growth, consumers of the 1970s would have laughed us out, it is good that we are talking about this topic out loud. Perhaps it will help us avoid much bigger problems.

In Slovakia, the agricultural policy over the last years has been focused on increasing food self-sufficiency. Already in 2014 the Ministry of Agriculture, under the leadership of Ľubomír Jahnátek, aimed to increase the food self-sufficiency rate to 80%.

Throughout our history, autarky has been an attractive idea for many, and while today\'s public debate rarely includes a call to shut down the country and build a self-sufficient utopia, we may occasionally come across attempts to set up parts of the economy independent of external partners.

The fifth annual survey of Ukrainian exporters and importers1 marks growing optimism among companies regarding the already achieved AA impact, while their future assessments are marred by uncertainty.

The Slovak agricultural sector suffers from several problems that hinder the competitiveness of farmers: complicated land ownership, due to which (young) farmers cannot access fields, an unpredictable business environment and bureaucracy and, last but not least, lack of investment in capital equipment.