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Soil-water practice is essential for farm sustainability, thereby establishing the reference level for agricultural policy of the European Union (EU). This paper focuses on the critical gap in the knowledge surrounding comparison of soil-water effects of Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC) and carbon farming. We aim to interrogate the tasks assigned to soil-water standards during the 2005–2020 timeframe and identify soil-water effects under selected soil-water GAEC topics. The farm-level and landscape-scale effects were weighed for each standard. The investigation included an extensive meta-review of documents that featured scientific work on sustainable practice. In each GAEC document, soil-water sustainability was weighed vis-a-vis carbon farming. Our main finding was that the identification of soil-water effects within GAEC was addressed both at farm-enterprise level (E) and landscape scale (L). This identification was very similar among the sampled Member States (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia). A small differentiation was detected in how exact the guidance under each standard was in each of these Member States, and hence how the prioritization was scored, ranging from 1, most influential, to 5, least influential. The scores that prevailed were 2.5–5 on the part of the scoring instrument. Carbon farming is a welcome addition to the corpus of good farming practice and is complementary to GAEC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to create a typology of consumers based on the consumption of food products and non-alcoholic beverages for two countries. The research was conducted among non-randomized respondents representing 900 Polish and 300 Slovakian households. The Polish part of the study was carried out in the Silesian and Mazovian provinces. The Slovakian part of the study was carried out in the whole country. To identify four groups of consumers, the paper used the clustering of objects method, especially the Two-Step method: Ward (hierarchical) cluster analysis and non-hierarchical k-means cluster analysis. The authors represent the difference in the results achieved between types of consumers. Poles and Slovakians similarly perceive the financial status of their households and the attention paid to food price when buying it. However, there is a significant difference in food consumption. When eating, Slovaks are influenced more by vegetarian and vegan fashion trends and emotional experience than price. On the contrary, Poles are more interested in the health aspect of the food consumed and its quantity when emphasizing the price, which results from being less financially satisfied. The results of the research provide information about changes in consumer attitudes in the researched area and their thinking about their consumption, respectively lifestyle, and illustrate some trends in consumer behavior for the current and post-COVID-19 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the development of agricultural technology has been focused on achieving higher reliability and quality of work. The aim of the presented paper was to examine the possibilities of evaluating the quality of work of wide-area irrigation machinery by monitoring the coefficients of uniformity and non-uniformity of irrigation. The object of the research was pivot irrigation machinery equipped with sprinklers with a total length from 230 to 540 m. The commonly applied quality of work parameter for wide-range irrigators is the irrigation uniformity coefficient according to Heermann and Hein CUH. Work quality evaluations were also carried out through other parameters applicable in practice, such as irrigation uniformity coefficients calculated according to Christiansen CU, Wilcox and Swailes Cws, and our introduced parameters, the coefficient ar (derived from the degree of unevenness according to Oehler) and the degree of uniformity γr (derived from the degree of non-uniformity according to Voight). Other applied parameters for determining the quality of work of wide-range irrigation machinery were the coefficients of irrigation uniformity according to Hart and Reynolds CUhr, further according to Criddle CUcr and subsequently according to Beale and Howell CUbr. Next, the parameters of the non-uniformity coefficient according to Oehler a, the coefficient of variation according to Stefanelli Cv, the degree of non-uniformity according to Voigt γ and the degree of non-uniformity according to Hofmeister Ef were evaluated. Field tests were performed during the growing season of cultivated crops (potatoes, corn and sugar beet) in the village of Trakovice (agricultural enterprise SLOV-MART, southwest of the Slovakia) and in the district of Piešťany (Agrobiop, joint stock company). During the research, the inlet operating parameters (speed stage, inlet pressure, irrigation dose), technical parameters (number of sprayers, total length, number of chassis) and weather conditions (wind speed and temperature) were recorded. The obtained results were examined by one-way ANOVA analysis depending on the observed coefficient or input conditions and subsequently verified by Tukey and Duncan tests as needed. Irrigation uniformity values ranged from 67.58% (Cws) to 95.88% (CUbh) depending on the input conditions. Irrigation non-uniformity values ranged from 8.58 (a, Ef) to 32.42% (Cv). The results indicate a statistically significant effect of the site of interest and thus the impact of particular field conditions (p < 0.05). When evaluating the application of different coefficients of irrigation uniformity, the results showed a statistically significant effect only in the first test (p = 0.03, p < 0.05). During further repeated measurements, the quality of work increased due to the performed inspection of all sprayers and the reduction in the influence of the wind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is affecting all sectors of human activities worldwide, including crop production. The aim of the paper was to evaluate the average daily air temperatures measured at one hundred meteorological stations across Slovakia in 1961–2010 and calculate the maximum length of the vegetation period for Solanum lycopersicum L., Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata and Daucus carota L. Future trends predictions of the temporal and spatial development across the duration of the vegetation period in Slovakia were elaborated for decades 2011–2020, 2041–2050, 2071–2080 and 2091–2100. Our results show that there was an earlier start to the vegetation period in spring and a later termination in autumn for past 30 years. There is a predicted trend of prolongation of the maximum duration of the vegetation period up to 20 days (Solanum lycopersicum L., Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata) and 15 days (Daucus carota L.) in comparison with the refence decade 2001–2010. The maximum vegetation period duration will extend from the south of Slovakia towards the north of the country. The predicted potential increase in crop vegetation periods will be limited by other constraints such as the availability of arable land and soil water availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have reported that biochar can improve soil properties which are linked with higher crop yields and this effect is long-term. This paper aimed to study the effects of biochar (0, 10 and 20 t ha−1) and its combinations with N-fertilization (zero, first and second level of N-fertilization) after 3 and 4 years of its application on improving soil characteristics of loamy Haplic Luvisol and crop yields (Dolná Malanta, Slovakia). The results indicated an increase in soil pH (+7%), improvement in sorption properties (hydrolytic acidity decreased by 11%, sum of basic cations and base saturation increased by 20% and 5%, respectively) and soil organic carbon rose by 27% with increasing biochar rate in the soil. N-fertilization applied to biochar treatments was a stabilizing moment in C sequestration even in the case of its labile forms. Overall, humus stability and quality were not significantly changed, however in biochar treatments without N-fertilization, the humus stability and quality decreased 3 and 4 years after biochar application. Yield parameters differed with relation to climate conditions during both vegetation crop seasons, however the combination of 20 t ha−1 of biochar with the first and second level of N-fertilization had the highest potential to increase the grain yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]