Agriculture & Food, Volume 1, 2013

Streszczenie: Production and consumption of food for the humans as the earliest type of economic activity is attracting an increased attention in modern world. Although in developed countries the share agriculture to GDP is only with a single digit and satisfies the population needs, the rise in the number of population and increased consumption still leaves many people hungry in different parts of the world, in spite of technological advances in genetic engineering. The belief in different circles that agriculture is dealt with mainly by the poorer countries, and that the development of other branches of the economy such as industry can push it forward in itself, to some extent has overshadowed the strategic role of this sector, especially in primary production or agricultural products. The sharp rise in prices of corns and derivative products in 2010 as a result of draught, begun to alarm even the consumers with higher incomes who should spent more in food consumption. Undoubtedly, for developing countries that do not satisfy their own needs with food and depend on importing, agriculture development requires a more serious and decisive commitment than ever before. While this necessity cannot be questioned by anyone, the aim of this paper is to analyze agriculture reform challenges in the Republic of Macedonia, where agriculture contributes by 10 percent in GDP and 18 percent in employment, and based on a survey data of eight agribusiness companies from the Polog region, to identify the development prospects of this sector. The paper challenges different measures of productivity in agribusiness and agriculture that vary from business to business due to different technology used in subsectors. Instead, the paper adopts monetary value of products in the market as a more appropriate measure of efficiency in the companies engaged in agribusiness.