What is corporate sustainability

Abstract The gut is a fundamental organ system which makes up two equally important functions, i.e., the digestion and host defence. To elicit the well-functioning and healthy gut, the dynamic balance of gut ecosystem is of importance. A wide range of factors related to diets and infectious disease agents seem to affect this balance, and subsequently affect the health status and production performance of the chicken. With the ban and/or reduction of the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) in poultry production, the alternatives to AGP are needed especially to preserve the balance of gut microbiota in chicken. This review provides a summary of the potentials and possible mechanisms of action of some alternatives to AGP (referred as nutraceuticals) in improving the gut microbial ecosystem and immune system as well as growth performance of poultry.

Role of Nutraceuticals in gut health and growth performance of poultry (Review Article)

In times of increased concern for human health and care for the environment, it is important to investigate the consumer behavior models in order to better manage the product supply. From the perspective of our research, it is important to learn about consumer attitudes, of a specific product, such as honey, so as to potentially strengthen the economic position of honey producers. The purpose of this article was to explore the consumers’ perceptions of organic and local honey in the Republic of Serbia and identify factors that contribute to predicting consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for organic and local honey. The ordinal regression was used to determine which factors influence the WTP for organic and local honey, and the findings show that the consumers were WTP more for organic honey than for local honey. Socio-economic characteristics of respondents and honey attributes affect consumers’ WTP. The higher monthly household income positively influences the WTP for organic honey, while on the other hand, the higher level of education has a positive influence on the WTP for local honey. The WTP for organic honey positively affected by the perceived importance of honey attributes, such as food safety and support for the local community. The frequency of the purchase of the local honey, the recommendations for the local honey purchase and the perceived importance of attributes, such as the care for the environment and nutritional properties, have a positive influence on the consumers’ WTP for local honey. From this, we can conclude that our understanding of all the factors that influence a consumer’s decision to allocate budget expenses for honey can help all stakeholders in creating an adequate pricing and promotional strategy for honey products.

Analysis of Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Organic and Local Honey in Serbia

In this paper, various spatial modelling techniques were applied to analyse changes in soil cover and their impact on soil erosion in the Oplenac wine-producing area in Serbia in the past (1985 and 2013) and in the future (with predictions for 2041). The Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs Sediment Delivery Ratio (InVEST SDR) model and the Modules for Land Use Change Evaluation (MOLUSCE) model, integrated with methods of remote sensing, were successfully applied and were shown to be valid tools for predicting the impact of Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes when estimating soil loss. The results revealed that the greatest impact of land use changes between 1985 and 2013 was on a reduction in areas under vineyards and an extension of meadow and pasturelands as an individual and social response to economic conditions during the research period. The forecast for 2041 reflected the trends observed in the previous period, with the greatest changes witnessing an increase in urban areas and a decrease in areas of arable land. It was also found that the effect of LULC changes on spatio-temporal patterns in the Oplenac wine-producing area did not have a major impact on soil loss, meaning this area, with its good agro-climatic characteristics, is suitable for the intensification of agricultural production.

Spatio-temporal analysis of land use/land cover change and its effects on soil erosion (Case study in the Oplenac wine-producing area, Serbia)

Local food production benefits sustainable regional development and should be considered as one the pillars of sustainable regional development strategies. Local food producers share a common heritage because of the cultural and historical ties in their regions, while consumers tend to value food products produced locally. The purpose of this article was to explore market participants’ attitudes toward the impact of local food product attributes on sustainable regional development. The authors’ findings on the main advantages and barriers to consumption of local food products have pointed out the complexity of the relationships between market participants (i.e., producers and consumers) and indicated that a deeper understanding is necessary for overall economic development. The problems of local food products in Serbia, in the context of sustainable regional development, have not been investigated so far, and for this reason, it is important to analyze the differences between consumer and producer attitudes to reduce this perceived gap in the literature. In this way, these insights can offer opportunities for strategic actions in regard to the local food product supply and consumption, with the aim of including different regional stakeholders.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/7/2847/pdf

Do Local Food Products Contribute to Sustainable Economic Development

Managing reserves of spare parts for agricultural machinery in agricultural farms represents one of the most important activities in securing smooth functioning, especially having in mind the imperative of continuous agricultural production. Aims of this study were to show how efficiency of the agricultural farms as a business subject can be secured by determining timely purchase of spare parts by using a stochastic model of supplies on one side and reduce the time of malfunction of agricultural machinery on the other. Study of optimal inventory level was conducted in agricultural holdings on the territory Banat in 2015 based on data on spare parts purchase and malfunction of agricultural machinery. Acquired data was related to frequency of defects and the need for spare parts, as well as the price of spare parts, where the data was processed with the use of stochastic model of supplies. The optimal number of spare parts for the observed equipment in the observed period was y*=4 with the probability of 85% that this amount of spare parts will be sufficient for all malfunctions on the equipment to be eliminated, while taking a 15% risk that one or two spare parts will be acquired with emergency procurements in case of extraordinary circumstances. The model of managing supplies represented in such a way provides an opportunity to be easily applied in agricultural farms, where the values of an optimal solution would be effectively got with previously chosen values of suitable parameters, thus minimizing total expected costs, which would include fxed costs, expenses caused by unsatisfied requests, where the time of waiting for the observed equipment to be fxed would be taken into account.

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Analysis of optimal costs for reserves of spare parts for agricultural machines

In this paper, we investigated the level of competitiveness of the processed food sector of the Danube region countries, in order to show the existence of comparative advantage and the correlation of exports. We used the Balassa (RCA–revealed comparative advantage) index and TPI (trade performance indexes). At first, using the Pearson and Spearman index, we examined the existence of correlations between the processed food sector of the Danube countries. Then, we appl ied the Least Significant Difference (LSD) test to further compare the value and answered the question: between which Danube countries are there significant differences? With the study, we found that the distribution of the RCA index in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Mo ldova and Slovenia deviates from normality. We also found the existence of a strong correlation of the RCA index of the Czech Republic with Romania, Hungary with Moldova and Serbia, Moldova with Serbia and Bulgaria with Ukraine. Finally, we concluded that the development of trade in the countries of the Danube region requires the participation of all relevant interest groups and could play an important role in providing faster economic development, that is in achieving sustainable development of the countries, with the sustainable use of available resources.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/6/6976/pdf

Balance of Comparative Advantages in the Processed Food Sector of the Danube Countries

The quality and safety attributes of poultry products have attracted increasing widespread attention and interest from scholarly groups and the general population. As natural and safe alternatives to synthetic and artificial chemical drugs (e.g., antibiotics), botanical products are recently being used in poultry farms more than 60% of the time for producing organic products. Medicinal plants, and honeybee products, are natural substances, and they were added to poultry diets in a small amount (between 1% and 3%) as a source of nutrition and to provide health benefits for poultry. In addition, they have several biological functions in the poultry body and may help to enhance their welfare. These supplements can increase the bodyweight of broilers and the egg production of laying hens by approximately 7% and 10% and enhance meat and egg quality by more than 25%. Moreover, they can improve rooster semen quality by an average of 20%. Previous research on the main biological activities performed by biotics has shown that most research only concentrated on the notion of using botanical products as growth promoters, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial agents. In the current review, the critical effects and functions of bee products and botanicals are explored as natural and safe alternative feed additives in poultry production, such as antioxidants, sexual-stimulants, immuno-stimulants, and for producing healthy products.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8467/pdf

Honeybee and Plant Products as Natural Antimicrobials in Enhancement of Poultry Health and Production

Economic analysis of exporting Serbian honey

Investments in tourism are crucial for the development of both tourism and other activities that are directly or indirectly related to it. Despite the immense potential of tourism, the insufficient development of infrastructure appears as one of the reasons that diminishes the role of tourism in Serbian economy. It is therefore of great importance to invest in infrastructure development in tourism. The subject of this paper is to compare Serbia with the countries in the region of Western Balkan and with several other European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Austria, and the Netherlands) in terms of the level of capital investments and employment in tourism. The insight into the amounts of investments will show the position and perspective of Serbia in relation to the countries in region and Europe. By adopting the measures of investment policy in tourism and associated incentives, Serbia will create the climate that will increase the amount of capital investments in tourism, which will have a multiplier effect on employment and also the entire economy.

/pdf/investments-and-employment-in-tourism-in-the-republic-of-35e8fbf7sy.pdf

Ivan Milojević

Papers

Analysis of optimal costs for reserves of spare parts for agricultural machines

Balance of Comparative Advantages in the Processed Food Sector of the Danube Countries

Honeybee and Plant Products as Natural Antimicrobials in Enhancement of Poultry Health and Production

Economic analysis of exporting Serbian honey

Investments and employment in tourism in the Republic of Serbia