Costs of growing wheat and oilseed rape in slovakia and other V4 countries

This paper deals with the issue of cost in primary agricultural production. In this paper, we assess the trends in the costs of agricultural products in the V4 countries and compare them with each other. The subject of the analysis is the evaluation of the structure and development of costs and benefits for agricultural production as a whole, partially for crop and for livestock production and also for two specifically selected products. The purpose is to find out whether the costs incurred for the cultivation of wheat and oilseed rape in Slovakia are adequate as they are compared with the surrounding countries. Following the evaluation of the development of total costs, we define the substantive issues in overhead costs and evaluate their development. Based on the results of the analyses we have defined the proportion of overhead costs in agriculture as an important component of total production costs. The paper points to the need to innovate and modernise the way we think about overheads and the method of their calculation. We also look for the answer to how modern cost management methods could influence their height and development. We propose to improve the calculation system of agricultural enterprises in the analysed countries by introducing of non-traditional calculation method which removes the inaccuracy of the traditional methods and the non-targeted allocation of high overheads to the products.