The agricultural production in less favoured areas (LFA) should, first of all, fulfil the non-production goals, as is the nature and environment protection and job opportunities generation. These goals could be achieved within the conditions of sustainable agricultural production systems. This paper is aimed on the analysis of how the companies operating in marginal conditions realize commercial principles and targets specified for the LFA conditions. The obtained knowledge indicates that the managers of majority of the companies do not respect the recommendations and persist in the intensive production in spite of the unfavourable conditions.

Th e paper analyses disparity in the performance of farms in the EU countries and identifi es their causes. Th e individual countries are ranked in the paper according to the long-term average of the amount of their agricultural produce per unit of area into seven segments, and the relation between the input of fi xed assets, intermediate consumption, labour force, levels of animals, and other aspects are identifi ed for the creation of agricultural production. In terms of its performance, the Slovak agriculture ranks in the last but one seventh segment and in comparison with the advanced countries, it shows a low input of fi xed assets, intermediate product, livestock units, but also a lower volume of the provided subsidies than the advanced countries. Th e Slovak agriculture does not make use of its competitive advantages, which involve mainly the size of businesses, the economies of scale, and the productivity of labour.

Th e paper deals with the management of agricultural businesses that operate in low-production conditions known as the LFA (Less Favoured Areas). Under these conditions, there are more than half of farms -legal entities. Th e past analyses have suggested that these farms are gaining more support funds, but objectively their costs are higher. Th e disparity is refl ected in almost half of the loss-making farms, with worse results achieved more by agricultural cooperatives than by business companies. In the terms of the measures implemented in the rural development plan, the LFA farms apply multifunctional production structures. Slovak farms operating in the LFA conditions in the EU do not achieve the performance of the average LFA farms in the EU-25; however, they neither receive the amount of supports received by these farms in the Union.

Abstract:The paper deals with the place of Slovak agriculture in the European Union and with the implementation of the strategy of the competitiveness growth of Slovak agrarian producers. The paper compares the disparities in the utilisation of production factors with the selected EU countries, identifies the causes of unfavourable position of Slovakia's agriculture and also describes some impacts of crisis and disparities in utilising production factors in businesses operating under production conditions.

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