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Since the late 1980s, agriculture in Central and Eastern European Countries(CEECs) has been under considerable adjustment pressure due to changingpolitical, economic and institutional environments. These changes have been linkedto the transition process, as well as the ongoing integration into the European Unionand the world market. Reduced subsidies, increased environmental and food qualitydemands, as well as structural changes in the supply, processing and food retailingsector call for major structural adjustments and the improvement of farmers’managerial abilities. Though such changes always carry significant threats to farms,they also offer new opportunities for the farms' entrepreneurial engagement.Upcoming changes in the agricultural environment and their possibleconsequences for farm structures across Europe are thus still timely subjects.The objective of the IAMO Forum 2006 is to contribute to the success ofagriculture in the CEECs, as well as their neighboring countries, in today’sincreasingly competitive environment. Concrete questions the conference focuseson are: What are the most suitable farm organizations, cooperative arrangementsand contractual forms? How to improve efficiency and productivity? Where domarket niches lie and what are the new product demands?This book contains 33 invited and selected contributions. These papers will bepresented at the IAMO Forum 2006 in order to offer a platform for scientists,practitioners and policy-makers to discuss challenges and potential strategies atthe farm, value chain, rural society and policy levels in order to cope with theupcoming challenges.IAMO Forum 2006, as well as this book, would not have been possible withoutthe engagement of many people and institutions. We thank the authors of thesubmitted abstracts and papers, as well as the referees, for their evaluation of theabstracts from which the papers were selected. In particular, we would like toexpress our thanks to OLIVER JUNGKLAUS, GABRIELE MEWES, KLAUS REINSBERGand ANGELA SCHOLZ, who significantly contributed to the organization of theForum. Furthermore, our thanks goes to SILKE SCHARF for her work on thelayout and editing support of this book, and to JIM CURTISS, JAMIE BULLOCH,and DÓNALL Ó MEARÁIN for their English proof-reading. As experience fromprevious years documents, the course of the IAMO Forum continues to profit from the support and engagement of the IAMO administration, which wegratefully acknowledge. Last but not least, we are very grateful to the RobertBosch Foundation, the Federal Ministry of Nutrition, Agriculture and ConsumerProtection (BMELV), the German Research Foundation (DFG), the HanielFoundation and the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central andEastern Europe (IAMO) for their respective financial support.
