The main aim of the conducted research, which results are presented in this article, was to show the state of innovativeness among SME’s entrepreneurs from the warmińsko-mazurskie voivodship. In the article there are also presented the entrepreneurs’ opinions concerning implemented innovations, the plans of implementing the further innovations and on the other side the barriers of implementing innovative solutions and the lack of the entrepreneurs’ knowledge about the form of public support in increasing the level of innovativeness.

Ecological farming is developing rapidly in Poland. It enhances farm incomes while preserving the natural environment and cultural heritage. Ecological farming is based on natural methods of land cultivation which preserve the fertility of land and protect animals. The most important advantage of ecological farming is the preservation of biodiversity. The number of ecological farms increased in 2005 to almost ten times their 1999 figures. The average ecological farm area has 23 hectares and is much larger in comparison to traditional farms. The total average agricultural land under ecological production in 2005 also increased. The collected data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has confirmed the increasing use of ecological agriculture and the number of processing factories using ecological products both before and after Polish integration with the European Union.

Non-farming population represents an increasingly significant group of rural residents and therefore became an important object of study. The paper is primarily focused on the description of the non-farming rural population. The main source of the analysed data were surveys of families residing in 76 villages across Poland. The sampling of villages for the surveys was purposeful and representative, based on socio-economic features of the population and the land structure. Research shows that as many as 57% of rural families own no agricultural land in 2005 and on the basis of the analysis of socio-economic development observed in rural areas, it may be assumed that the non-farming rural population will grow further and that this socio-occupational category will increasingly determine the socio-economic development of rural areas.

Potatoes comprise such species of crops which experienced the greatest fall in the production of seeds in 1989–2006. There is a need and an economic justification to revert the decreasing tendencies in seed production and to increase the usage of qualified seed-potatoes in agriculture by 2–3 times. In light of the analysis, which was carried out, it is the demand factors, i.e. size of production and profitability of agriculture, quality of seed-potatoes and level of marketing, which are the major barriers in the restoration of seed production. Meanwhile, there is a need to limit the barriers which hamper the increase of supply (profitability of seed production, phytosanitary requirements, short life cycle of the cultivar). In 2005–2006 there has been a significant increase in market prices of seed- -potatoes. The elimination of most of the barriers in market development that are discussed in the paper is necessary to rebuild seed production.

Banks provide a financial intermediary service by channeling funds efficiently between borrowers and lenders. Bank lending is subject to credit risk when loans are not paid back on a timely basis or are in default. The ability or possessing a methodology to evaluate the creditworthiness of a borrower is therefore crucial to managing the bank’s risk management and profitability. In transition countries like Poland, creditworthiness evaluation is especially difficult due to the transitional nature of the financial markets. This paper looks at a comparison of using logit models and artificial neural networks models to evaluate a borrower’s credit risk. In particular, this paper shows that artificial neural networks model is a better predictive tool than logit models of credit risk.

The aim of the paper is to present some selected issues of rural inhabitants’ unemployment on the base of own research with the reference to general situation on labour market in Poland. Empirical data analyzed in the paper comes from the research project entitled “Analysis and assessment of rural women situation on labour market” co-financed by the European Social Fund within Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development realized in Department of Marketing and Agrarian Policy in Warsaw University of Life Sciences in the years 2006–2007. Findings from the research include some patterns which did not depend on the characteristic of rural region but there are also some factors which reveal regional diversification (internal and external factors).

This paper addresses the concerns of a growing minority of people who live in the peripheral regions of Britain, attracting tourists and those in search of holiday homes. Taking as its focus West Cornwall, the paper explores the impact of economic and social change on the lives of local people excluded from the property market. The authors take a novel approach by examining the effects of the interaction of the property market and ethnographic accounts from local people.

As the results of researches it can be concluded that profitability of starch potatoes production has decreased in Poland. Strong dependence of income of starch potatoes producers on Euro exchange rate should be stressed. This rate exchange was advantageous in the first year of membership but it changed negatively for producers. There were also other factors which infl uenced on financial results of starch potatoes production to large extent, like climate conditions, mainly long-lasting droughts or too much rain, which caused losses in field cultivations.

The aim of the paper is to present the role of agricultural sector in the diversifi- cation process of Libyan economy. which is very important issue taking into consideration that due to extremely high dependence on oil as a source of national income formation, Libya may face a huge problem in case of decrease in oil prices. However there are some difficulties even in quite well developing agricultural sector. The main ones are: the low growth rate of domestic agricultural product and its low percentage contribution to the Libyan GDP formation. The reasons of these problems are presented as the results of conducted analyses.

The paper presents evaluation of income effects of the social insurance system in Poland. Social insurance system can realise so-called insurance solidarity for farmers and those employed in other sectors. However, this system can also be based on progression. The insurance solidarity has been examined in two aspects: macro- and micro-economic. The analysis shows that in macro-economic aspect, there is no solidarity of social insurance among insurance beneficiaries forming either the group of the employed in non-agricultural sectors or those running a farm. There is the solidarity among people employed in farming sector and running non-agricultural economic activity. However, in case of larger farms, the share of contributions in their income makes barely few per cent.

Cross-border shopping which has been analysed in this study was particularly intensive in the first years of the transformation period, and as the economic differences between Poland and her neighbours decreased the intensity of this phenomenon declined. Certain regional differences regarding the citizenship of the cross-border shoppers have been revealed. At Poland’s western border Germans prevailed among citizens crossing the border, and Polish citizens, too, constituted a sizeable proportion. Poland’s southern border was mainly crossed for shopping purposes by Polish citizens, and Czechs and Slovaks also came in large numbers. Among persons crossing the eastern border the largest group consisted of the citizens of the neighbouring countries; there was also a certain number of the Poles and persons from the remaining countries which emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Among persons crossing the air and maritime borders the most sizeable group consisted of the Poles and of the citizens of West European and non-European countries.

The paper presents rules of calculation and administrative service of direct payments in Poland after the accession to European Union. There is a description of payments campaign in the period of 2004–2006 together with Polish model characteristic considering big number of the farmers and changing forms of farms support. There is a presentation of legal foundation of current payments system and their realisation through the Agency of Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (Polish paying agency). Moreover one can find the level of individual quota of payments different for various crops and plants. Then it is a proposed reform of payments calculation presented connected with introduction of Single Payment Scheme (SPS) detached from the production gradually implemented in all member countries of EU. The conclusion of the paper comprise possible directions of Common Agricultural Policy evaluation infl uencing the level and structure of direct payments.

Causal analysis facilitates to determine the cause-and-effects relations between economic phenomena in order to understand the changes and prepare decision fundaments about the future. In the cause analysis financial results can be calculated as the result of a multiplication of two, three or four factors. In this paper a four factors model was applied. This approach looks into the causes which infl uence on the level of net profits as: changes in the level of employment, changes in the equipment per employee and other quality factors as assets’ productivity and sales profitability. In order to determine the infl uence of particular factors on the result of the analyzed phenomenon the method of logarithm finding was applied. This method provides relatively exact results. The analysis contains selected enterprises of the food sector. Based on the results managing efficiency was evaluated for analyzed enterprises. These results could be useful in the future to improve the decision making process from an economic point of view and compare levels of resources efficiency utilization of enterprises of a similar production profile.

This comment discusses D. Koreleski’s article in Acta Stientiarum Polonorum – Oeconomia 6 (3). The aim of the comment is firstly to discuss the article and secondly to present some completing ideas.