Scholarly record

DEVELOPMENT ISSUES OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURE IN LATVIA

Ligita Melece

Abstract

It is recognised on global and European level that organic agriculture is more sustainable and environment friendly production system. Organic agriculture, including food, (hereinafter - agri-food) production shows considerable growth on the global and European Union (EU) level, including Latvia. It has been widely considered by scholars, experts and politicians that organic agri-food production is beneficial for rural development through: enhanced entrepreneur activities; growth of jobs; creation of added value and alternative food chains; and, especially, increase well-being for rural inhabitants. Besides, organic farming generates environmental and socio-economic benefits to society and provides various ecosystem services (e.g., landscape, biodiversity). The aim of the study is twofold: 1) to assess the latest development trends and issues of organic agri-food production, as well as its spatial aspects; 2) to evaluate the support to organic agri-food by the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014-20120. The principal materials used in the studies are as follows: different sources of literature, e.g., scholars? articles, research papers and the reports of institutions, as well as EU and Latvia?s legislation. The data have been obtained from: Eurostat online database, online database of Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, Food and Veterinary Service and unpublished data from the Latvian Rural Support Service. The appropriate qualitative and quantitative research methods for certain tasks have been used in the process of study: monographic; content analysis and synthesis; logical and abstract construction; data grouping; correlation and linear regression etc. Although the number of organic holdings and utilized agricultural area (UAA) under organic farming is high in Latvia, the agricultural production share or output is almost negligible. Only one organic product ? honey has high share 30% from total production volume. Either organic food processors and processed food share from total food is negligible compared to the number of organic farms and share of organic land. There are some limitations, which hinder further development of organic agriculture in Latvia.

Publication details

Back to publication list