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What does precision crop production hold for the future of soil science and plant nutrition?
411-421Views:226The concept of precision agriculture is straightforward at the scientific level but even basic goals are blurred at the level of everyday practice in the Hungarian crop production despite the fact that several elements of the new technology have already been applied. The industrial and the service sectors offer many products and services to the farmers but crop producers do not get enough support to choose between different alternatives. Agricultural higher education must deliver this support directly to the farmers and via the released young graduates. The price of agricultural land must be higher if well-organized data underpin the production potential of the fields. Accumulated database is a form of capital. It must be owned by the farmers but in a data-driven economy its sharing will generate value for both farmers and the society as a whole.
We present a methodological approach in which simple models were applied to predict yield by using only those yield data which spatially coincide with the soil data and the remaining yield data and the models were used to test different sampling and interpolation approaches commonly applied in precision agriculture. Three strategies for composite sample collection and three interpolation methods were compared. Multiple regression models were developed to predict yields. R2 values were used to select among the applied methods.
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Soil – Environment – Sustainability
331-337Views:197The future and life quality of human society depends primarily on the success of the sustainable use of natural resources: the geological strata–soil–water–biota–near surface atmosphere continuum. Soil is the most significant conditionally renewable natural resource in our Earth’s system, with three unique properties: multifunctionality; fertility/ productivity; resilience. In the case of rational land use and precise soil management soil does not disappear, and its desirable „quality” does not decrease considerably, irreversibly and unavoidably. Its renewal, however, requires continuous care and permanent activities.
Consequently, the prevention, elimination or moderation of soil degradation processes and extreme hydrological situations (the two main factors limiting desirable soil multifunctionality) with rational land use and soil management are the key factors and priority tasks of sustainable development on each level and in each phase of the decisionmaking process. -
The effects of curing technology on the rheological and organoleptic features of meat products
139-142Views:97Meat products are important staple foodstuffs owing to their high protein, vitamin and mineral content. Meat plants do not only use traditional production technologies but also develop methods that preserve the nutritional value of meat or improve the texture and organoleptic features of meat products. These features play an important role in the consumer society. Consumers first meet the external features of meat and this experience influences their decisions. Our analyses compared a traditional and a new curing procedure. Besides organoleptic inspections, we analysed texture with a CT3 type Texture Analyser to obtain quantified information on the condition of meat samples in the various curing phases. We used our results to compare traditional and new curing procedures.
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Comparison study of student with special educational need in elementary school
71-76Views:166The aim of this lecture is to observe the status of students with special educational needs (SEN) in Europe and Hungary. The European Union has made tough decisions in financing and educating disabled people, so they can be integrated into the society. According to the European directives, Hungarian jurisdiction and educational politics tend to follow the pedagogical processes. The relevant juridical and economical laws for SEN students have already been implemented. The number of students with SEN in Europe increases permanently, so it is reasonable to detect their controversy. Despite this fact, differences can be experienced in teaching methods among primary schools, as a result development of SEN students can be different. The aim of this study to compare the motor skills of SEN students in two different primary schools, with different pedagogical program. My research base were the Ferenc Móra primay school and Gyermekház alapítvány primary school in Budapest. My main question was, if a specially developed program targeted SEN students can increase their motor skills. Studying the girls in the 2 age-groups, we have not experienced significant differencies out of the 3 motor tests between the control and the experimental groups.
Studying the boys in the 2 age-groups, we have experienced 3 significant differencies out of the 3 motor tests between the control and the experimental groups. SEN students, who have been taught in segregated form with the help of ’Alapozó Terápia’ – a special therapy – achieved better motor skills. The study makes recommendation to primary shools how to organise trainigs for these students. -
The study of environment-conscious attitudes in the food-industry companies of the Northern-Plain Region
155-163Views:78that the world of business, profit and work is not a hermetically closed area, but is in interaction with its closer and wider surroundings, ultimately with society and the natural environment.
The affectedness of each sector and company varies. To be able to tackle these problems, first and foremost the commitment of companies towards environmentally conscious attitude is necessary, which can form as a result of inner obligation or outer pressure. Thus companies will be concerned to measure and quantify the environmental effects of all activities.
Some of the companies have already given their votes for environment-protection. Both internationally and at home it seems that the responsible leaders of more and more companies build social, human rights and environmental protection considerations in the objects and values of the company apart from profit maximization.
In my thesis I present the data gathered from a questionnaire survey carried out with food-industry companies in the Northern-Plain Region. The aim of the survey was to evaluate the commitment of companies towards environmental protection via solid data. The fact that more than half of the respondents found the positive effects of environmental protection of little importance and that environmental protection was the last among the aims of some companies reflected greatly in the following outcomes. -
Differences in farmer’s information consumption and ICT-use – a qualitative research
91-98Views:146Farming has now been placed in a new framework: farm managers have had to increasingly devote attention to and interact with the external world. Numerous studies have showed that information and communication technologies (ICT) can play a vital role in realizing benefits with more effective information management at the farm level. Besides land, labour and capital, sufficient information has become a critical factor for agricultural producer. The article presents the findings of a focus-group research which aim was to discover the main characteristics of information consumption and ICT-adoption among Hungarian farmers.
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The Legal Rules Pertaining to Land Protection in Hungary
324-331Views:94Buildings in industry, mining, transportation and for personal and commercial activities cover increasingly more valuable agricultural land. The increase of sub-urbanization and vehicular traffic and the spread of malls and other kinds of investments are causing serious harm for not only to human society, but to a whole national economy as well.
The law on agricultural land (1994:LV) contains legal rules for the preservation, use and classification of agricultural land. These rules define the temporary or permanent use of land for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes; the scale of the land-protection fee and the rules of the process on cases in which land is used for non-agricultural purposes without the consent of the land registry. In the field of land classification, the law prescribes the regulations which are to be followed in order to define the net income of agricultural land in Golden Crowns.
Hungarian land protection rules are unique in the European Union, because only few member-states have similar laws to ours. Community law does not regulate the member states, except in the case of land classification, because this is the basis of the tax paid on the agricultural lands, but even here, there are differences among the states. -
Milestones in the development of agronomic management practices in crop production
203-209Views:159From the dawn of the history of the human race, agriculture has always been a profound activity of mankind producing food and feed as well as various plant originated materials for further processing.
Agronomy, like any other human activity, depends on the perpetual development of knowledge and technical skills, - in a modern context – science and innovation. This paper is intended to provide the reader with information regarding the main phases of the development of agricultural production from the Neolithic societies through the early Mesopotamian and Egyptian empires to the inventions of first organised learned society of Rome. The major research findings of the past two millennia including agro-chemistry, genetics and technical development are presented.
Such a review should not lead to any scientific conclusions, but rather a philosophical postulate similar to that of Jonathan Swift written some centuries ago: “And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground, where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together”.
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Prospects of social welfare work in Hungary and in Hajdú-Bihar county
127-130Views:130The social care has been accompanying phenomenon of mankind from ancient times. An individual's social and economic processes that affect the lives basically forced the representatives of the powers to help those in need. The concepts used in social care today (equality, solidarity, etc.) have evolved over the centuries, shaped by political ideologies of the content. This wide range of people living in today's society for granted the fact that life is present in the social care system, which is necessary for security.
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The use of MFA indicators in the characterization of the settlement sustainability
107-116Views:90One of the key sustainability challenges for the coming decades will be to improve the management of natural resources in order to reduce current levels of anthropogenic environmental pressure and respect the biological and physical limits and the carrying capacity of the planet. The first step towards meeting this challenge is an enhancement of the understanding of the material basis of our society. In the past 15 years, scientists in several research institutes have created a fast growing field of research, a new family of different methods, named material flow analysis (MFA). These instruments have an increasing policy relevance: international organizations (UN, EU, OECD) have encouraged member states to establish MFA accounting in their statistical programmes and urged governments and economic actors to use these tools. In this paper I present selected examples to reveal how the MFA approach and derived material flow indicators can be used for the evaluation of sustainability policies at municipality level.
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Regional strategies serving competitiveness
97-101Views:134In my study titled “Regional strategies serving competitiveness”, I examine the regional strategies whose development and implementation in practice play a determinant role in the medium- and long run economic and social development of the given region. The study primarily focuses on the infrastructural basic investments that are essential from the aspect of creating a knowledge-based information society. The study also deals with a stakeholder analysis used by investors in order to focus on the quality of state administration and institution system.
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Bioreactor in the service of sustainable development
111-118Views:166The control of our relationship with our environment is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. This has an effect on the economic and social processes and the human activities. All of these are included in a new developmental strategy: the strategy of sustainable development.
The strategy of sustainable development prevails by the new technologies and it is realized on high-tech level as the fermentation manipulation of organic materials, biogas production and production of “green” electric current.
One of Europe’s largest bioreactors has been established in Nyírbátor in Hungary at first (chief executive: Mihály Petis). -
Honey bee mortalities caused by direct and indirect poisoning in Hungary
101-107Views:290Bee poisoning related top lant production shows an increasing tendency. The poisoning of honey bees most of the times is caused by neonikotinoids and insecticides. The bee pasture has imparied because of the too high bee-density,therefore the beekeepers had to locate their colonies near to the farmland. The pollinating insects experience dimmesurable damages because the ignorance of the agricultural society and the lack of communication. In cases of bee poisoning sometimes it can be intentional. The samples of direct bee-destruction show higher dose of chemical residues than the amount of which they can get during the pollinating activity. In our study we also demonstrate the direct bee poisoning which is caused by endosulfan and dichlorvos.
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Evaluation of the current situation of the Hungarian higher education based on a few indexes
121-125Views:114Around the Millennium we experienced the worldwide development and the growing importance of the role of higher education played in the social and economic development. A few years later, however, a crisis appeared in the situation of higher education (Kadocsa, 2002). The Hungarian higher education system faces the perspective of serious changes in its fundamental principals – such as its main activities and the economical ways which are used to finance these activities – even if only parts of the new educational scheme come into effect. Considering this fundamental activity aspect of the issue, there are new challenges which make necessary to rethink the role and aim of higher education and to define the new tasks needed in connection with education, research and other services. Hungarian Education needs to be renewed and improved to avoid a complete
break away; therefore, future priorities and tasks in order to fulfill these priorities need to be defined (Vincze and Harsányi, 2011). The new conception seems to be based on restrictions of the budget as it is experienced recently: a new structure available for a smaller part of society with a restricted budget has been under development. However, not even a battle, let alone a war can be won without money, horses and arms. The recent financial restrictions as well as the parts of the Széll Kálmán plan concerning education prove that serious amounts of governmental funds is taken away from education. The international improvement tendencies contradict to basically all of these Hungarian priorities.
All in all, no reform or change – no matter how much wanted – can be achieved without appropriate funds. -
Agriculture and Public Information in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina
58-63Views:77Since the Dayton Agreement on Bosnia of 1995 there is peace between Croats, Bosnians and Serbs. Whether this is a lasting situation remains to be seen (de Rossanet, 1997). Pessimists refer to Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations” and argue that because Bosnia is situated on the fault line of the Western and Orthodox civilizations and on top of that has a large muslim minority a new war can not be avoided (Huntington, 1997). Others don’t accept this and are of the opinion that rational governance will overcome the problems of the multicultural society. In this view the restoration of the country’s economy is a major priority. However, on the long run, a peaceful outcome is not to be taken for granted.
At present, the international community represented by the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) controls the political situation and the three ethnic groupes are forced to cooperate. To sustain a lasting peace in the future without the guidance of the OHR the reconstruction of the Bosnian economy starting with the agricultural sector is a precondition. This paper reports on a quick scan carried out in the period 15-19 April, 2002, in order to evaluate the possibilities of the agricultural sector as an economic booster in the post war situation. The quick scan was necessary to evaluate and give advise with respect to the plans of the OHR to engage in a public information campaign in order to stimulate the transformation of subsistence farming into commercial agriculture, and to encourage young urban Displaced Persons (DP’s) to consider life as a farmer as an option for their future. The campaign will include a number of sub-regional radio and television series, and a booklet and videos for distribution among the target groups. -
The situation and role of higher education in the North Hungary region
91-96Views:145Northern Hungary is one of the most disadvantageous regions of Hungary and the European Union; "keeping force" is extremely week. The regional spatial inequalities – despite the national and EU convergence program – have been increasing year by year. The social and economic situation of the region shows negative trends. Negative features of the migration processes are manifested in the candidates' choice for tertiary education has increased in the region in the past three years parallel with the proportion of those who are not on site, but primarily in the Central Hungarian region to continue their studies. An intensification of the negative trends is experienced in the economic processes both in jobs and the structure and performance of the local economy in respect of per capita income.
The transition from the nineties has decisively influenced the social and economic processes and the status of tertiary education institutions and their constantly changing role in the region. The role of education has become a key point of their activities as financing of the sector encouraged the institutions to increase the number of students and training offer, while R&D as form of cooperation in the economic sphere overshaded. Nowadays and over the past decade the increasing demand to transform their educational profile has increased in accordance with the social and economic situation of the region, adjusted to the catch-up and development opportunities of the region.
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Possible explanations for the transformation of the Northern Great Plain Region's labour market
69-78Views:79As a result of the processes of hungarian economy and society the increase in territorial differences is noticeable in the last few days. The changes in society's status, the rate of increase and the level of development can be tracked for example in the diverse variation of labour market. In my study I would like to demonstrate the typical processes of labour market based on the time scale between 2000-2007, and I also want to reveal the root causes of the change in unemployment rate. The source of data is a regular, representative labour-survey by the Hungarian Central
Statistical Office based on interviewing people, as well as registration on place-hunters by the Employment and Social Office together with the summary of governmental subsidy. I targeted the age-groups between 15-74 years in my analysis, but the results are not modified by the over 65 years old population because of their small economical importance. I define the status of labour market by markers among others like economical activity, employment rate, unemployment rate, and I also consider the change in the amount of registered place-hunters in the period examined. My aim is to determine the responsible coefficients of the change in unemployment rate. -
Plant clinic in Nepal: An overview
5-10Views:126Plant clinics play an important role in supporting farmers in growing healthy crops and achieving higher productivity in Nepal. The development and operation of plant clinics in Nepal are assessed in this study through a comprehensive analysis of the institution via literature review and interaction with key stakeholders. The plant clinic approach of the agriculture extension system started in Nepal in 2008, followed up with engagement with CABI and the Government of Nepal. Enhancement of farmers' knowledge and skill, encouraging sustainable farming methods, and ultimately increasing crop yields are the impact of plant clinics. However, there are some challenges faced during the implementation of plant clinics in the existing agricultural extension systems. In Nepal, the plant clinics are primarily operated by agricultural technicians with expertise in plant protection, as well as IPM farmer facilitators and community business facilitators after attending an intensive plant doctor's training. Plant clinics have been integrated into the agricultural extension system by agro-advisory service provider of the government of Nepal. Despite institutionalisation, policy support needs to be strengthened to ensure the sustainability of the different components of the (e.g., data management, validation, monitoring, localised content, etc.) plant clinic in Nepal.
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The role of self regulation and market mechanisms in tertiary education
91-97Views:122The social functions of tertiary education have gone through considerable changes with the transformation of economic environment in the more than two past decades. In the decade after the political transformation the number of students in the tertiary education increased more than threefold. Personal interests, social needs and the demands of the society lay different claims to the performance of this sector. The needs for structural transformation of the tertiary education system are connected with the development of social and economic processes. The changes of legal regulations determining the operation of the sector are induced by these factors, which refer to the autonomic characters of the public participants. Tertiary education possesses a specific market environment each of whose characters – both the supply and demand sides – strive for the enforcement of self-regulatory mechanisms.
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Will there be a horticultural triangle (cluster)? Thoughts about the reconstruction of the Hungarian horticulture between two European regions
21-27Views:178The authors of this study seek the answer to the question how to develop, in the first decade or decades of the 21st century, the university-level
horticultural scientific training, the horticultural innovation and the scientific co-operation between companies and universities in Debrecen and
in the North Great Plain Region and – in a wider sense – in Hungary to a standard being competitive even in European terms. With the synthesis
of the prospects of past, present and future, they drew the following conclusions. The reconstruction of agriculture, horticulture and food industry
is a part of reforming Hungary's countryside. Horticulture, producing high added value, will be able to decisively contribute to the plan whereas
the value presently produced in an agriculturally cultivated area of 1,000 euros/hectare can reach 2,000 to 3,000 euros in the next two decades.
A necessary and indispensable precondition to achieving this is the strengthening of the innovation output of the Hungarian horticultural sector.
Despite the numerous technical criticisms formulated in connection with the serious problems of Hungarian agricultural and horticultural
scientific innovation, no progress has been made in this field for the past one and a half decade. The scientific research of this topic hardly
continued or did not continue at all, the up-to-date surveys and in-depth analyses were missing. The objective, basic principles and tasks of the
Act CXXXIV of 2004 (TTI) enacted concerning research-development and technological innovation are clear and progressive. The co-operation
between the National Research Technology Office and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the setting up of the Innovation Fund are heartening
opportunities. These – along with the new Higher Education Bill to be passed – may as well be suitable for restarting the Hungarian agricultural
and horticultural scientific innovation. In our opinion, this requires a new, well-considered national agricultural programme, which can be
conceived in the framework of the "Ferenc Entz National Horticultural Plan" proposed by us for horticulture. In the most eastern Hungarian
university knowledge centre, at the University of Debrecen, the continuing of the horticultural scientific innovation strategy started in the last
decade may be the focal point and generator of the development of the so-called "Hungarian Horticultural Triangle”, or "Hungarian
Horticultural Cluster". This region comprises the Northern and Southern Great Plain Regions and the area between the Danube and Tisza
Rivers. Here, about 70 to 75% of the total Hungarian horticultural commodity stock is produced. The objective of the HORT-INNOTECH
DEBRECEN programme planned in 2004 by the University of Debrecen, Centre of Agricultural Science is to establish the horticultural scientific
research-development and technological innovation structure and knowledge base of the Hungarian Horticultural Triangle / Hungarian
Horticultural Cluster. In harmony with this, the objectives are to bring about competitive, new horticultural products, to improve the conditions
of utilising them, to enhance the competitiveness of enterprises based on technological innovation, to make use of the research-development and
innovation opportunities available in the regions in an efficient manner, to as full extent as possible, to encourage the creation of places of
employment producing high added value in the field of horticulture, to improve the technical skills of those employed in horticultural researchdevelopment and to promote their enhanced recognition by the society.