{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,24]],"date-time":"2026-04-24T14:42:01Z","timestamp":1777041721610,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"20","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,10,11]],"date-time":"2019-10-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1570752000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sustainability"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The key element of the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy is sustainable agriculture where the social, economic, and environmental objectives should be fulfilled. This role can fulfill only those agricultural holdings that are effective in the transformation of inputs to outputs, and which do not waste the inputs. Therefore, we analyze the technical efficiency of the agricultural holdings in the Slovak regions, and try to identify the factors that are able to influence the efficiency of agricultural holdings. We can conclude that there are regional disparities in technical efficiency in Slovakia; however, the problem of inefficiency is not typical only for the agricultural holdings in the areas with natural constraints. These regional disparities should be considered when adopting a new political measure to support sustainable agriculture. By the results of econometric models, we find that the agricultural production diversity, the policy of the labor market, and tax policy are the important factors influencing the technical efficiency of the agricultural holdings in Slovakia.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/su11205589","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,10,11]],"date-time":"2019-10-11T10:53:03Z","timestamp":1570791183000},"page":"5589","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Technical Efficiency in the Agricultural Business\u2014The Case of Slovakia"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Jarmila","family":"Laz\u00edkov\u00e1","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Law, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, 949 76 Nitra, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zuzana","family":"Laz\u00edkov\u00e1","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Law, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, 949 76 Nitra, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6270-9806","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ivan","family":"Tak\u00e1\u010d","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of European Policies, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, 949 76 Nitra, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6879-3447","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"\u013dubica","family":"Rumanovsk\u00e1","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of European Policies, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, 949 76 Nitra, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anna","family":"Bandlerov\u00e1","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Law, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, 949 76 Nitra, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,10,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"World Bank (2008). Agriculture for Development. World Development Report, The World Bank."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"149","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-58679-3_5","article-title":"Comparison of methods to assess agricultural sustainability","volume":"Volume 25","author":"Lichtfouse","year":"2017","journal-title":"Sustainable Agriculture Reviews"},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (2019, August 13). Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Available online: https:\/\/www.un.org\/ga\/search\/view_doc.asp?symbol=A\/RES\/70\/1&Lang=E."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Karley, A. (2016). Utilising Diversity for Sustainable Agriculture, The James Hutton Institute."},{"key":"ref_5","first-page":"33","article-title":"Legal regulation of direct payments in EU and Slovak Republic in programming period 2014\u20132020","volume":"4","author":"Schwarcz","year":"2015","journal-title":"EU Agrar. Law"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"449","DOI":"10.1126\/science.aax3146","article-title":"A greener path for the EU Common Agricultural Policy","volume":"365","author":"Zinngrebe","year":"2019","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Roh\u00e1\u010dikov\u00e1, O. (2007). Direct payments as an important tool of Common agricultural policy. V\u00fdznam a \u00dalohy \u00fa\u010dtovn\u00edctva a Financi\u00ed v Riaden\u00edmal\u00fdch a Stredn\u00fdch Podnikov v Po\u013enohospod\u00e1rstve, Slovensk\u00e1 po\u013enohospod\u00e1rska univerzita."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"European Commission (2001). A Framework for Indicators for the Economic and Social Dimensions of Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission. Available online: https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/agriculture\/publi\/reports\/sustain\/index_en.pdf."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"25","DOI":"10.5751\/ES-04910-170325","article-title":"Assessing the sustainability of small farmer natural resource management systems. A critical analysis of the MESMIS program (1995\u20132010)","volume":"17","author":"Astier","year":"2012","journal-title":"Ecol. Soc."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"175","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jenvman.2014.08.025","article-title":"Measuring farm sustainability using data envelope analysis with principal components: The case of Wisconsin cranberry","volume":"147","author":"Dong","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Environ. Manag."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9","DOI":"10.1006\/jema.2002.0578","article-title":"Measuring agricultural sustainability in terms of efficiency: The case of Dutch sugar beet growers","volume":"66","author":"Wossink","year":"2002","journal-title":"J. Environ. Manag."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/0921-8009(90)90010-R","article-title":"Toward some operational principles of sustainable development","volume":"2","author":"Daly","year":"1990","journal-title":"Ecol. Econ."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"332","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ecolecon.2005.09.012","article-title":"A quest for the economics of sustainability and the sustainability of economics","volume":"56","author":"Ruth","year":"2006","journal-title":"Ecol. Econ."},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"69","article-title":"Economic Efficiency, Sustainability and Biodiversity","volume":"22","author":"Bishop","year":"1993","journal-title":"Ambio"},{"key":"ref_15","first-page":"855","article-title":"Towards Sustainable Marketing: Strategy in Slovak Companies","volume":"17","author":"Savov","year":"2015","journal-title":"Amfiteatru Econ."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"Perman, R., Ma, Y., McGilvray, J., and Common, M. (2003). Natural Resource and Environmental Economics, Pearson Education Limited."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"429","DOI":"10.1016\/0377-2217(78)90138-8","article-title":"Measuring the efficiency of decision making units","volume":"2","author":"Charnes","year":"1978","journal-title":"Eur. J. Oper. Res."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"58","DOI":"10.2478\/euco-2018-0004","article-title":"A non-parametric analysis of technical efficiency in Bulgarian farms using the FADN Dataset","volume":"10","author":"Galluzzo","year":"2018","journal-title":"Eur. Countrys."},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"51","article-title":"Application of the DEA on the measurement of efficiency in the EU countries","volume":"61","year":"2015","journal-title":"Agric. Econ."},{"key":"ref_20","first-page":"10","article-title":"The Comparative Efficiency Analysis of EU Members Agriculture Sectors","volume":"37","year":"2017","journal-title":"Rural Sustain. Res."},{"key":"ref_21","first-page":"275","article-title":"Technical efficiency and its determinants in the European Union agriculture","volume":"61","author":"Nowak","year":"2015","journal-title":"Agric. Econ."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Z\u00e1horsk\u00fd, T., and Pokriv\u010d\u00e1k, J. (2016). Determinants of Efficiency in Agriculture in CEE Countries. International Scientific Days 2016, The Agri-Food Value Chain: Challenges for Natural Resources Management and Society, SPU.","DOI":"10.15414\/isd2016.s12.11"},{"key":"ref_23","first-page":"63","article-title":"Inputov\u00e9 deform\u00e1cie technickej zmeny v slovenskom po\u013enohospod\u00e1rstve v rokoch 2000\u20132012: Aplik\u00e1cia Malmquistov\u00fdch indexov","volume":"16","author":"Zbranek","year":"2016","journal-title":"Ekonomika Po\u013enohospod\u00e1rstva"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chang, C.W., Kun-Shan, W., Bao-Guang, C., and Kuo-Ren, L. (2019). Measuring Technical Efficiency and Returns to Scale in Taiwan\u2019s Baking Industry\u2014A Case Study of the 85 \u00b0C Company. Sustainability, 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/su11051268"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1016\/j.omega.2010.12.006","article-title":"Data envelopment analysis 1978\u20132010: A citationbased literature survey","volume":"41","author":"Liu","year":"2013","journal-title":"Omega"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.1016\/j.omega.2015.04.004","article-title":"Research fronts in data envelopment analysis","volume":"58","author":"Liu","year":"2016","journal-title":"Omega"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Banerjee, A., and Kuri, P.K. (2014). Agricultural Growth and Regional Disparity in India: A Convergence Analysis. Sri Lankan J. Agric. Econ., 61\u201377.","DOI":"10.4038\/sjae.v16i1.4605"},{"key":"ref_28","first-page":"36","article-title":"Regional Disparity in Agriculture Development and Foodavailability Status\u2014An inter-district study of West Bengal","volume":"22","author":"Barik","year":"2017","journal-title":"IOSR J. Humanit. Soc. Sci. (IOSR-JHSS)"},{"key":"ref_29","first-page":"11","article-title":"Impact of Regional Disparities on Agricultural Development in Uttar Pradesh\u2014A Geographical Analysis","volume":"13","author":"Shafiqullah","year":"2013","journal-title":"Glob. J. Hum. Soc. Sci. Geogr. Geo-Sci. Environ. Disaster Manag."},{"key":"ref_30","first-page":"1","article-title":"Regional Disparities in the Levels of Agricultural Development in Aligarh District of Western Uttar Pradesh","volume":"4","author":"Sharma","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. J. Sci. Res. Publ."},{"key":"ref_31","first-page":"115","article-title":"Regional disparities of agricultural performance in Romania","volume":"13","author":"Burja","year":"2011","journal-title":"Ann. Univ. Apulensis Ser. Oecon."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"228","DOI":"10.1111\/1477-9552.12157","article-title":"Productivity and convergence in European agriculture","volume":"68","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Agric. Econ."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.7201\/earn.2012.01.02","article-title":"Evolution of the agricultural productivity in the European regions: A convergence analysis with dynamic data panel methods","volume":"12","author":"Cuerva","year":"2012","journal-title":"Econom\u00eda Agraria y Recursos Naturales"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"113","DOI":"10.1177\/0969776410381037","article-title":"Agricultural productivity in the European regions: Trends and explanatory factors","volume":"18","author":"Ezcurra","year":"2011","journal-title":"Eur. Urban Reg. Stud."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Marogiu, S., Cesaro, L., Latruffe, L., and Desjeux, Y. (2019, August 28). L\u2019Efficienza Tecnica delle Aziende Agricole di Montagna: Analisi dei dati RICA e Confronto fra Montagna Italiana e Francese. In XXXI Conferenza Italiana di Scienze Regionali. Available online: https:\/\/aisre.it\/images\/old_papers\/Marongiu.pdf."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"461","DOI":"10.1080\/00343400123499","article-title":"Economic Efficiency in Polish Peasant Farming: An International Perspective","volume":"35","author":"Munroe","year":"2001","journal-title":"Reg. Stud."},{"key":"ref_37","first-page":"331","article-title":"Efekt\u00edvnos\u0165 z rozsahu po\u013enohospod\u00e1rskych podnikov na Slovensku","volume":"50","author":"Bielik","year":"2004","journal-title":"Agric. Econ."},{"key":"ref_38","first-page":"375","article-title":"Technical and scale efficiency of corporate farms in Slovakia","volume":"49","author":"Fandel","year":"2003","journal-title":"Agric. Econ."},{"key":"ref_39","unstructured":"Koll\u00e1r, B., and Sojkov\u00e1, Z. (2016). Impact of the Investment Subsidies on the Efficiency of Slovak Farms. 9th International Scientific Conference for Ph.D. Students and Young Scientists, Slezsk\u00e1 Univerzita."},{"key":"ref_40","first-page":"158","article-title":"Slovak agricultural farms in different regions\u2014Comparison of efficiency","volume":"54","author":"Benda","year":"2008","journal-title":"Agric. Econ."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1078","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.30.9.1078","article-title":"Models for estimation of technical and scale inefficiencies in data envelopment analysis","volume":"30","author":"Banker","year":"1984","journal-title":"Manag. Sci."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"379","DOI":"10.1002\/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x","article-title":"A Mathematical Theory of Communication","volume":"27","author":"Shannon","year":"1948","journal-title":"Bell Syst. Tech. J."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Laz\u00edkov\u00e1, J., Bandlerov\u00e1, A., Rumanovsk\u00e1, \u013d., Tak\u00e1\u010d, I., and Laz\u00edkov\u00e1, Z. (2019). Crop diversity and Common Agricultural Policy\u2014The Case of Slovakia. Sustainability, 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/su11051416"},{"key":"ref_44","first-page":"199","article-title":"Market analysis of selected agriculture commodities cultivated on agricultural land in Slovakia regions from the perspective of sustainable development","volume":"17","author":"Kotrla","year":"2017","journal-title":"Sci. Pap. Ser. Manag. Econ. Eng. Agric. Rural Dev."},{"key":"ref_45","first-page":"7649","article-title":"Dynamics Of Livestock Production Developement in the Slovak Republic between the years 2004 and 2017 and Potential Impact of The Changes on The Agricultural Sector And Landscape","volume":"17","year":"2019","journal-title":"Appl. Ecol. Environ. Res."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bartov\u00e1, \u013d., Fandel, P., and Ko\u0161a\u0159ov\u00e1, J. (2018). Regional Differences in the Slovak dairy farm performance. International Scientific Days 2018, Wolters Kluwer \u010cR.","DOI":"10.15414\/isd2018.s13.03"},{"key":"ref_47","first-page":"17","article-title":"Productivity and efficiency differences between Czech and Slovak Milk Producers","volume":"17","author":"Hockmann","year":"2014","journal-title":"Rev. Agric. Appl. Econ."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1186\/s40100-017-0085-x","article-title":"Technical efficiency and total factor productivity changes in European dairy farm sectors","volume":"5","author":"Madau","year":"2017","journal-title":"Agric. Food Econ."},{"key":"ref_49","first-page":"197","article-title":"Impact of the Rural Development Programme Subsidies on the farms\u00b4 inefficiency and efficiency","volume":"61","year":"2015","journal-title":"Agric. Econ."},{"key":"ref_50","first-page":"80","article-title":"Legal form of agricultural entities as a factor in ensuring the sustainability of the economic performance of agriculture","volume":"63","year":"2017","journal-title":"Agric. Econ."},{"key":"ref_51","first-page":"1","article-title":"Anal\u00fdza technickej efekt\u00edvnosti po\u013enohospod\u00e1rskych podnikov Slovenska","volume":"10","author":"Covaci","year":"2005","journal-title":"Acta Oeconomica Informatica"},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"25","DOI":"10.1186\/s13705-016-0089-5","article-title":"To integrate or to segregate food crop and energy crop cultivation at the landscape scale? Perspectives on biodiversity conservation in agriculture in Europe","volume":"6","author":"Dauber","year":"2016","journal-title":"Energy Sustain. Soc."},{"key":"ref_53","first-page":"651","article-title":"Biomass production potential of different willow varieties (Salix spp.) grown in soil-climatic conditions of South-Western Slovakia","volume":"58","author":"Demo","year":"2013","journal-title":"Wood Res."},{"key":"ref_54","first-page":"705","article-title":"Comparison of production parameters of willow (Salix spp.) and poplar (Populus spp.) varieties in the last year of the first four-year harvest cycle","volume":"59","author":"Demo","year":"2014","journal-title":"Wood Res."},{"key":"ref_55","unstructured":"Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (2019, August 28). Biodiversity for Sustainable Agriculture. Available online: http:\/\/www.fao.org\/3\/CA2227EN\/ca2227en.pdf."},{"key":"ref_56","first-page":"62","article-title":"An analysis of the efficiency in a sample of small Italian farms part of the FADN dataset","volume":"62","author":"Galluzzo","year":"2016","journal-title":"Agric. Econ."}],"container-title":["Sustainability"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2071-1050\/11\/20\/5589\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T13:25:07Z","timestamp":1760189107000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2071-1050\/11\/20\/5589"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,10,11]]},"references-count":56,"journal-issue":{"issue":"20","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,10]]}},"alternative-id":["su11205589"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/su11205589","relation":{},"ISSN":["2071-1050"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2071-1050","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,10,11]]}}}