Research background: Agriculture plays a vital role in producing food to ensure food security, but it is one of the biggest contributors to environmental pollution. One of the main goals of the new CAP is to set higher ambitions for environmental actions, which brings into the front the concept of agricultural eco-efficiency. The notion of eco-efficiency includes the economic and also ecological dimensions of sustainable agriculture. Purpose of the article: The main goal of this paper is to evaluate the eco-efficiency of agricultural production and its dynamics during the years 2013, 2015, and 2017 of NUTS 2 regions within the Visegrad 4  (V4), i. e. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. The part of the main goal is to verify the research hypothesis that all the biggest agriculture producers are eco-efficient. Methods: V4 regional eco-efficiency of the agricultural sector is expressed by the Malmquist productivity index and is estimated using the output-oriented Data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, under the assumption of constant return to scale (CRS). The Malmquist index is decomposed to technical eco-efficiency change (EC) and technological change (TC). Based on the eco-efficiency, technological and pure technical eco-efficiency change, V4 regions are classified into three groups: the most progressive regions, the progressive regions, and the regressive regions. Findings & value added: CZ02: Central Bohemia, CZ04: Northwest, HU33: Dél-Alföld, HU31: Észak-Magyarország, HU32: Észak-Alföld, PL21: Malopolskie, PL41: Wielkopolskie, SK01: Bratislava region, and SK02: Western Slovakia have an eco-effective agricultural sector, the remaining V4 regions have eco-ineffective agricultural sector. The research hypothesis that all the biggest agricultural producers are eco-effective is not confirmed. During the analyzed years, 19 V4 regions improve their agricultural eco-efficiency. The main contributor to eco-efficiency improvement is technological progress, which indicates that producers implement innovations that lead to more eco-efficiency agricultural production.

There is still a lack of studies, which are comparing the eco-efficiency of the world`s biggest agricultural producers, which affect the development of agricultural policy the most, not just EU countries. Therefore, the main goal of this article is to evaluate and compare the eco-efficiency of the world`s 24 biggest agricultural producers in time and space and verifying the hypothesis that all the biggest agriculture producers are eco-efficient. Due to the improvement of technologies, we expect a positive development of agricultural eco-efficiency during the time. Eco-efficiency of the world’s 24 biggest agricultural producers is computed for the years 2007 and 2017, using an output-oriented DEA model with two undesirable outputs. Data are obtained from FAOSTAT for the years 2007 and 2017. 15 countries have an eco-effective agricultural sector in both years 2007 and 2017 and could be considered as sustainable efficient countries. On average the agricultural eco-efficiency is decreasing over time. Based on the eco-efficiency values, the biggest agricultural producers are divided into three eco-efficiency agricultural groups – eco-efficiency leaders, eco-efficiency followers, and eco-efficiency laggards. According to the results, the research hypothesis that all the biggest agriculture producers are eco-efficient is not confirmed. Likewise, in general, technology improvement during time does not lead to a positive development of agricultural eco-efficiency.

Effects of membership in cooperative organizations was investigated in many studies, and their results were sometimes controversial. Presented paper contributes to discussion related to cooperative membership by comparing members and non-members, with elimination of self-selection bias, to identify motivation to become member and main effects coming from membership in producer organization. Panel data used in the presented analysis are from Ministry of Agriculture of Slovak Republic at farm level for period of years 2009-2016, which was the most recent available data. Propensity score matching approach was applied to eliminate self-selection bias and to create sample of members and corresponding non-member farms in each year. Difference between these two groups were evaluated by methods of statistical inference. In general, it can be concluded, that in presented period were members of producer organizations more profitable than non-members. Also difference in total revenue was significant in period of year 2010-2013, which means probably successful using of advantage from better bargaining position of producer organization, compared to non-members. Significant difference in profit disappeared in last three years 2014-2016, this could suggest, that membership in producer organization was less attractive to many farms which led to decrease in number of members. Membership in producer organization probably improved economic performance of farms in Slovakia in period 2009-2013, but this advantage disappeared in last years. This could be probably linked to support for producer organizations from European Union in period 2007-2013.