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Complex problem analysis of the Hungarian milk product chain
43-47Views:234Hungarian dairy sector went through significant changes in past two decades. The most significant changes were caused by our accession to the European Union. In Hungary milk production remarkably declined after EU accession. The size of our dairy herd has been practically reducing since the political transformation, but increasing yields per cow could compensate it in some way and for some time. However, in recent years, increasing yield per cow came to a stop and in parallel, the number of cows declined further and faster. Low prices, high production costs and tightening quality requirements ousted several producers from the market in past years. Feeding cost represents the highest rate in cost structure of production, but animal health expenditures and various losses are also significant. There are undeniably competitive disadvantages in the level of organisation and labour productivity; however competitiveness already depends on cost effectiveness in the medium run. In Hungary concentration of the dairies is relatively strong in spite of the relative high number of corporations. The dairies compete with each other and with the export market for the raw material and the better exploitation of their capacities. Applied technology of the Hungarian dairies lags behind the Western-European competitors’; in addition they have handicaps in efficiency and product innovation. Presence of chain of stores being dominant in sale of milk products does also not favour in all respects to the position of the dairies. The aforementioned retail chains are namely consumer-centric, engage in price follower conduct and weaken the position of the dairies with their private label products. As a result of increasing import of milk and milk products Hungary became a net importer in recent years. Today, disposable income still essentially determines the consumption habits of price-sensitive consumers. Loyalty for Hungarian products is not typical, consumers are open for import products being preferred by retail chains. In addition Hungarian milk and milk product consumption is about half of the Union average and it is far behind the level being necessary for healthy eating. In Hungary lack of competitiveness and vertical integration relationships and backwardness are revealing among the dairy farmers and the dairies, while chain of stores are in unprecedented “monopolistic situation”; the whole sector can be characterised by defencelessness.
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Farms in the system of European supportpolicy
79-83Views:181Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been having a great past, it is over numerous direction and structure changes in the last half century. After the Treaty of Rome, the harmonization of he agricultural structure and the production of Member States has been launched, during which the economic changes in the world and in Europe were continuously being kept track of. By using common experience, they strived to develop an agricultural sector that supplies the Member States of the Community with food, while the competitiveness and living circumstances of family farms are being improved. The general directions outlined in Stresa in 1958 were significantly redrawn owing to the transformed market conditions and EU accessions. The subsidization of family farms and the improvement of their profitability are having a stressed importance nowadays, too. Our country, as the fully qualified member of the European Union tries to meet its obligations undertaken in the accession treaty and therefore to develop an agricultural sector carrying out diversified agricultural production with a healthy age structure. The aim of the study is to specifically overview the issue of common agricultural policy by stressing the main development points and to introduce the Hungarian conditions of family farms. Besides, there will be an evaluation of the research works examining the income conditions of family farms in the North Great Plain region.
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Food problem and its solution
19-23Views:200The Globalization processes substantially changed relations between countries. One of main factors of these processes is forming in ХХ century of Worldwide auction organization, which activity provided with swift growth of volumes in trade of food commodities. Thus, the solution for global food problem was found. At the end of the second half of ХХ century the production volumes of agrarian goods in countries with a different level of economic development grew considerably. However, a food crisis 2007–2008 led to the necessity to define factors, which would allow to grow production, converting an agrarian sector into sustainable growing industry, passing ahead the increase of quantity of population. -
A review on the trend of livestock breeds in Laos
227-237Views:703When the livestock sector is considered an essential role in farmers' livelihood, and local breeds are still the critical component of animal breeding in Laos. Thus, there is a need to review the previous, current situation and prospects for Laos' livestock production. It aimed to study the different traits among the existing dominant local and improved livestock breeds (cattle, pig, and goat) and a more in-depth study on the livestock sector's previous evolving and prospects. Our findings revealed that the general trend of livestock population in Laos increased year-by-year for over 45 years, except for 1995 to 2000. It was decreased by almost 22% due to the new national strategy on economic revolution. The first foreign breeds were introduced into Laos, i.e., Large White, Landrace, and Duroc in 1980, Red Sindhi bulls in 1998, the frozen semen of Red Brahman 2003, and Bach Thao goats between 2001 to 2003. Unfortunately, many data are still not precise for introducing other foreign breeds like Boer goats, Thai Grey and Red Brahman. There were many missing data on the improvement of livestock breeds in Laos, including the local and improved breeds' reproductive and productive performance, which needs more study and research. We conclude that the semi-complex farm operation should be applied to improve livestock breeding and their productions in Laos.
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The effects of joining The European Union in the area of tourism within health tourism in Hungary
169-177Views:214The occasion of Hungary joining to the European Union caused difficult tasks and questions for tourism in Hungary. Tourism sector must have been prepared for joining to European Union, which means developing a well-functioning and future planning strategy. It has to improve taking parts our tourism into international market without significant deficit. The main aim is achieving the sustainable tourism by approach marketing and environmentally sound of way that is able to become competitive.
My aim is to analyze by numerous indexes what are the effects of joining Hungary to the European Union in tourism sector. However the results need to extend survey into many years. It is very important to reach long-term economic results and development, next to it has to be suitable impacts for social and natural environment, quality of life and developing health tourism as well.
To sum up we can establish extension of European Union area has improved diversity of tourism destination and goods, accessibility of natural and cultural features. -
Effect of vitamin e and selenium supplementation on the antioxidant content of milk and dairy products in dairy cows
9-12Views:391In 2007, the aim of the Ányos Jedlik program and the call for tenders was to support application-oriented, strategic research and development projects, which can increase the competitiveness of the Hungarian economy. In the framework of our project, we intended to examine whether non-protected antioxidants - in this case: vitamin E and selenium – used as feed-additives can increase the antioxidant content of milk. The milk with an increased level of vitamin E and selenium content can be used for producing functional foods which will represent competitive products on the current market of milk products. Our results show that the use of vitamin E and selenium as feedadditives can significantly increase the amount of vitamin E and selenium in the milk and also in the diary products.
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E-business in Hungarian Tourism
81-86Views:187Thanks to communication tools, globalization is spreading wordwide. For this reason, it is crucial to protect and strengthen our feature. On the one hand, we are repetitive joining the uniting world of economics, on the other hand, it is our responsibility to preserve our national characteristics with conscious politics.
Responding tardy to the touristic demands of the information society without risking the loss of our competitiveness market is highly dangerous at the current situation of the touristic, as the Hungarian Economic Development Program sets down. Unless we develop a strategy that realized radical changes in the next 4-5 years, Hungary can find itself in a disadvantageous situation regarding the touristic market of the 21st century. -
Evaluation of IT-Investments
378-386Views:193An informatical innovation is essentially a private business in the life of a venture but the ability of evolution and adaptability of ventures is remarkable for the national economy too. This is why it is important to observe the economical effects of IT investments. The introduction of an information system – as in the cases of other investments – requires pre- and post-calculations for payback of fixed assest, thrift and profitability. The operation of an information system means not only one-off acquisition of instruments and intangible assets, but requires continuous development, version control and improvement of hardware in the sake of conservation. There is a high rate of depreciation of IT investments in Hungary, because such goods change too quickly, together with the economic environment. If the conservation of IT instrument value wanted one has to make new expansions continually. IT specialists have determined some indices, one of which is Total cost of Ownership, which is an important indicator for investment analysis. In practice, there are some other models and methods we can adopt in our analysis. In this paper, I collected several relevant and usable methods for pre analysis of IT projects. Management can adopt these models in his investment process to make sound decisions.
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Effect of facility location on haulage efficiency
204-209Views:160In the 21st century, every economic sector must use the chances of evolution, technical and technological acquisitions, due to the level of competitiveness on the market. Such a sector as agriculture, where technology and the ideology of production are changing and adapting very slow to global expectations, by taking maximum advantage of opportunities, is a more central question. The greatest problems of Hungarian agriculture’s competitiveness are that this sector is very weak in capital and production costs make producers uncompetitive on the market. We can remedy this situation by using sources logically, purposefully and system approached. Logistics can provide the most useful assistance in such efforts.
In agricultural logistics, there is a great deal of uncovered territory. The aim is to transplant methods that are working correctly in other sectors into the agricultural sector, while maintaining development. One of the most important areas is transport logistics and material movement. Methods of analyzing and planning transportation and material movement found in professional literature do not take into account the specific needs of agricultural production. My aim is to examine the effect of facility location in the running of an enterprise. Through the results, I make suggestions for modifying the currently used logistic method and suggest further methods of examination. The effect of agro-specific needs must be examined in carrying out innovations and making logistical planning methods reliable. -
Development and Economic Benefits of Open Source Software
161-168Views:179This paper discusses open source software which became one of the most important trends in the software industry recently. The most often asked questions in this area are those related to intellectual property rights. The author used a more general approach and tried to give a survey of the advantages and disadvantages that the market players (developers, government and last but not least users) have to face.
After sketching the history of open source software and discussing some of the prevailing definitions, we turn out attention to the starting point: what motivates the developers? Then we give a general overview of the advantages and disadvantages of open source software. In the next part, the author analyses the software policies of the EU partially based on the abovementioned advantages and disadvantages. Finally the paper concludes with the discussion of user benefits and costs. -
Innovation Potential and Regional Competitiveness studies in the Northern Great Plain region
223-228Views:2091.5 million people live in the large region containing 3 counties, which makes it the second most populated region after Central Hungary. Its economy and land use are still defined by agriculture and it has been the least developed region in the country for a long time. In the country this region has the second lowest GDP per capita and employment rate. In contrast to the low values of the economic indicators the region has high potential for innovation. The University of Debrecen is located in the region having one of the widest range of education and intensive research and development is also a characteristic of the region.
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Using research findings in precision maize production
227-231Views:639The effect of crop production factors on maize yield are examined on chernozem soil in a more than 30 year old long-term experiment on the Látókép Experiment Site of the Centre for Agricultural and Applied Economic Sciences of the University of Debrecen. The aim of research is to evaluate the effect of fertilisation, cultivation, plant number, genorype and irrigation. The analysis of the data in the database of the examined period makes it possible to evaluate the effect of maize yield, as well as that of the crop production factors and the crop year, while the correlations and interactions between these factors were also examined. During the examination of the cultivation treatments, it was concluded that the highest yield was obtained as a result of autumn ploughing, but its effect largely differs in the irrigated and the nonirrigated treatments. Based on our examinations, strip cultivation should be applied periodically (e.g. strip – strip – ploughing – loosening) in areas with favourable soil conditions free from compacted layers.
In years with smaller, average precipitation supply or when the precipitation was higher than average, higher plant numbers were more favourable. Under drier conditions, but especially in several consecutively dry years, a lower plant number can be recommended which is not higher than 60 thousand per hectare. In the case of favourable water supply, 70-80 thousand plants per hectare can be used. The yield increasing effect of fertilisation was significant in the case of both non-irrigated and irrigated conditions, but it was much more moderate in the non-irrigated treatment. The extent of weed coverage was significantly affected by the previous crop. In the case of a favourable previous crop (wheat), the weed coverage was significantly lower than after an unfavourable previous crop (maize). In the case of the same previous crop (maize), the extent of weed coverage was mostly determined by the crop year and the extent of precipitation supply. Irrigation is not enough in itself, because if it was not accompanied by intensive nutrient management, yields started to decline.
The results of researhc, development and innovation contributed to the technological method which makes it possible to apply locally adjusted sowing seed, fertiliser and pesticide in a differentiated way, as well as to change the method of operations within the given plot. -
Challenges – the impact of climate change on the nutritional management of Hungarian orchards
323-334Views:442The agricultural sector is increasingly exposed to both environmental and economic risks due to the phenomena of climate change and climate variability. Fruit growth and productivity are adversely affected by nature’s wrath in the form of various abiotic stress factors. Climate change and extreme climatic events are predicted to increase in intensity, frequency, and geographic extent as a consequence of global climate change. It is no doubt that frequency of unexpected climatic events and their growing rate result in an increasing amount of problems for fruit growers globally. Today, climate change impacts are the most serious problems for Hungarian fruit growers as well. It can be stated that the nutrient demand of fruit trees can be supplied only under even worse conditions.
Therefore, it is so important to know and apply adaptation and mitigation strategies in horticulture to improve fruit quality and yield. In the last ten years, at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management at University of Debrecen expanded studies have been made to prove the importance of groundcover management in horticultural applications. In this mini review paper, is presented, how the university's researches contributed to the expansion of knowledge of preservation of soil moisture and what advice we can provide for fruit growers to face the challenges of climate change.