Search
Search Results
-
Changes in Managerial Functions in Agriculture
64-71Views:185Managerial activity is a process constituted by well separable functions, tasks. The functions and the content of managerial activity are influenced by several factors.
This multi-sided affectedness focused our attention on the analysis of management tasks. We aimed to formulate responses for the questions how and to what extent the activities and tasks of organizations define the tasks and functions at the given organization. On the basis of interview surveys, we analyzed the following managerial tasks: functions concerning information, communication, planning, decision-making, organization, control. The interviewed had to rank the factors influencing management tasks on a scale ranging from one to five. On the basis of the activities and tasks of organizations, we defined three types. The scope of this study does not allow us to publish all the results related to the above-mentioned managerial functions, so we can only present some, which are of interest.
Our findings suggest that the realization of certain management functions is influenced by several factors. Without striving for completeness, we could only evaluate 9-11 factors per function. The evaluation of information sources is considerably differentiated in terms of the activities, tasks of organizations. In the assessment of plans, the potentials for realization and repetition were judged differently, whereas non-organization changes and individual planning similarly. The findings of impact factors in decision making are largely different, as well in terms of organizational activities, but all the interviewed ranked the interests of the organization high. Analysis on control indicated that managers attributed higher importance to issues of content than to methodological ones.
Our investigations follow Fayol’s classical groups based on managerial tasks. We studied the following five tasks in the process of management: information tasks, planning, decision-making, instructions and control. We performed our studies with the inclusion of agricultural organization managers, with questionnaire surveys. The interviewed were asked to qualify the impact factors on the five investigated management tasks on a scale ranging from 1-5. We identified the following company groups: small company, medium company and large company.
We performed our analysis on the basis of company sizes as well, seeking to formulate responses on how size influences the qualification of the investigated factors.
Our findings suggest that the interviewed company managers attribute higher than average roles to the tasks of the management process. The qualification, ranking of management tasks are considerably influenced by company sizes. Relationships and venues are important in the implementation of information tasks, whereas the viability of plans is essential in the process of planning. Usefulness and company interests are highlighted in decision-making. In the case of instructions and decision-making, we stressed the significance of content elements as opposed to formal ones. -
Possibilities of Farm Management Decision Support
287-292Views:130Computer science has a major role in the decision-making process of farmers. In this process IT can be applied to virtually all phase: from infromation gathering to information processing. I am examining the position of informatics in the decision-making process. IT can be used in every single phases of the decision-making process. In my essay the useage of Internet and the possibilities it can provide play a significant role.After a brief description of the IT position of Hungarian agriculture I am introducing some programs, which can be used in the management’s decision-supporting system. Besides the Hungarian experiences the West European surveys also comfirm the application of Information Technology.
-
Research of the interrelations between actors and strategic goals in decision making
71-75Views:148management, although there are many chiseled methodologies plenty of professional literature.
The problem is more complex in strategic planning of regional communities – societies – of different range. These societies are very diverse, and accordingly the strategic goal setting can, and has to be very different than the strategic goal setting of enterprises.
The group of methods for morphologic and structural analysis and the computer based MACTOR program could be used.
The output data are presented in a large number of matrixes, vectors, graphs and histogram’s, which describe very fair the possible scenarios for preparation and decision making about
strategic plans. -
Precision crop production and artificial intelligence – the future of sustainable agriculture
47-58Views:615According to Kay et al. (2004, in Shockley et al., 2017), there are seven steps to the decision-making process: 1) Identify the problem or opportunity, 2) Identify the alternative solution, 3) Collect all data and information, 4) Analyse the alternatives and make a decision, 5) Implement the decision, 6) Monitor the results of the decision, 7) Accept responsibility for the decision. The basic question is what kind of tasks we can perform in the decision-making process and what to leave for Artificial Intelligence (AI).
-
Optimized balance between crop productivity, restoration and maintenance of vital soil functions and soil carbon sequestration and storage – the SmartSOIL (FP7) project
213-215Views:247Soils provide the most indispensable function of supporting the production of food and feed for a growing human population. At the same time they provide a range of regulating and supporting functions related to climate change and removal of greenhouse gases. The majority of the soil functions are closely linked to the flows and stocks of soil organic carbon (SOC); low levels of both flows and stocks may seriously interfere with several of the essential soil functions and thus affect the ecosystem services that soils deliver. Soil degradation is considered a serious problem in Europe and a large part of the degradation is caused by intensive cultivation practices in agriculture. The aim of the SmartSOIL project is to link the results of different scientific fields through a holistic and multidisciplinary approach and as a result develop a decision making tool contributing to sustainable development.
-
Optimization of Density of Sugar Beet (Beta vulgaris L.) Production Quotas by Pointwise Geostatistic Methods
46-50Views:405The regional distribution of the Hungarian sugar beet production quotas was developed by the conventional concurrency relationships. In our research we analyzed 320 sectors of 9 factories with geostatistic methods in a GIS environment. The applied researches of spatial mean, spatial deviation, deviational ellipse have been introduced by us in this speciality. We used two different methods in our optimization inquiries, where the spatial segment of the standard deviational ellipse was based on a more robust preliminary data processing solution, and this is why it is a less parametricable method. The inquiry of the spatial buffer zones in production sectors ensures an obvious optimization possibility. We considered the supply route distances in both cases as a modeling boundary condition. Our results show that we introduced an effective decision making method to the occurent replanning of the production sectors with the pointwise density inquiries and the geometric analogy that was fitted to it.
-
The role of network administrative organizations in the development of social capital in inter-organizational food networks
11-20Views:236This paper is concerned with the role of network administrative organizations (NAOs) in the development of social capital in interorganizational
networks aiming at supporting their members to innovate in the food sector through interacting with one another. A multi-case study approach is used whereby three Belgian interorganizational networks are investigated i.e. Wagralim, Réseau-Club and Flanders Food.
Our study shows that there are many options available to NAOs to build social capital within the networks they are responsible for. We propose to categorize these options in three main distinct groups. First, NAOs may nurture the development of social capital within the network through creating ‘space’ boundary objects which appear, in our study, to be an absolute precondition for the development of interactions and hence creation of ties between network members. Second, NAOs may impact the development of social capital by favoring certain members – or set of members – over others due to their characteristics such as good reputation, possession of common past experiences, multidisciplinary experiences, non-conflicting goals, similarity in terms of sector of activity and/or experience level and common mindset towards information exchange. Third and finally, NAOs may foster social capital development by enhancing effective communication between members on the one hand, and between members and the NAOs’ coordination and decision bodies on the other hand, via a clear mandate, network decision making
bodies composed of members, the use of ex-post evaluations and formal governance mechanisms (e.g. legal contracts), and the selection of staff endowed with a proactive and perspective taking behavior and able to show neutrality when conflict arise. -
Complex assessment of inland water fish stocks
74-80Views:338In the domestic fish production, natural waters have yielded for several years about 7-8 thousand tons. This, from the point of view of outputs, considering the almost 130 thousand hectares of natural water, is rather low, it means approximately 55-60 kg/ha mixed fish.Although the various natural waters can differ significantly on the basis of yields, yet on the majority of the territories, the results were low. In the case of our extensive still waters and rivers, the reason can undoubtedly be found in the combined effect of the lack of the possibility of reproduction of the fish stock and the over-fishing. Fishery built on planning supposes the best possible knowledge in the given circum stances of the parameters of the water area and its fishstock. Lacking this knowledge, it is not possible to establish the optimal use fulness of the resources, what is more, the management can make faulty decisions – as a result of a lack of information -, which can risk the success of later activities.
It is known that many factors have an impact on the success of the fishery, as well as some information in connection with the water area and the fish stock are necessary, the knowledge of which make it possible to manage the fishery in a planned way. One part of the information is available, while the other part is incomplete or not deep enough. The necessary data are dissimilar depending on their nature, can be obtained from different places, by different methods.
As the first step for executing the field surveys and processing data, I developed a complex model, which contains in a unified system the steps of estimating the fishstock. I made the sampling on the basis of this. Part of the model is a fish faunistic survey, as well as a morphological survey of the water area. The information gained from these are important for making more accurate the system of devices of the samplings for stock estimation (duration, number of net-rows) and for assigning its place (places representing the best way the physical characteristics of the given water area). The major stages of stock-survey: A) faunistic survey, B) physical survey of the bed, and C) sampling with the help of gill-nets. This is followed by the evaluation by the computer module.
The results of the research create a methodological and technical background for the fish faunistic and population biologic surveys still performed in different ways in our country, and by applying these methods together, all basic information about natural waters which help decision-making concerning fisheries can be obtaine deffectively. -
Possibilities of mass valuation in land use in Hungary
59-68Views:363Technological development makes it possible to simplify and accelerate decision-making processes by adequately processing and evaluating large volumes of data. Sub-data obtained from large data sets have a very important practical role in asset valuation, forecasting and valuing delineated or difficult-to-map areas, or in the context of portfolio management. Land valuation is a separate segment within asset valuation and it requires a specific methodological approach on behalf of evaluators. In this study, the authors compared the transaction data of arable land and the value of other land use categories. Based on empirical assessments, the authors developed proposals for the fast and cost-effective determination of the value of land use categories other than arable land - mainly meadows and pastures.
-
The role of disease resistance in the registration of crop varieties in Hungary
27-29Views:243Variety testing including disease resistance test of the major crops has been carrying out since the 1960’s in Hungary. Testing for resistance of the new candidate varieties is performed in the so-called VCU (Value for Cultivation and Use) trials under natural infection and in special small-plot or micro-plot trials using different disease provocative methods. Disease resistance, especially those of multiple and horizontal-type (race non-specific, partial or durable) resistances, has recently become a key limiting factor in the state variety registration. The role of disease resistance in the decision-making process of variety registration is demonstrated on the examples of winter wheat and sunflower as two major field crops in Hungary.
-
Biomass production estimation of processing tomato using AquaCrop under different irrigation treatments
131-136Views:504The wiser usage of irrigation water is inevitable in the future. Irrigation has very high input cost; therefore, farmers must carry out irrigation with care. Also, the effect of irrigation on crops has a big role in decision making. Modeling provides a possibility to evaluate this effect. AquaCrop, as a crop production simulation model has great potential in this field. The accuracy of tomato biomass yield prediction of the model was tested in this research. For collecting the necessary data, a field experiment was conducted at Szarvas on processing tomato with different water supplies, such as 100% (I100), 75% (I75), 50% (I50) of potential evapotranspiration and a control with basic water supply (C). The relation of the simulation and actual biomass yields was evaluated during the season. Very good correlation was found between the modelled and the actually harvested data. The data for the control and I100 treatments showed higher correlation than the I75 and I50. The relationship for all of the data was moderately strong. Miscalculations occur mostly when the dry biomass yield reaches
7 t ha-1. The accuracy of the model was evaluated with the use of mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean squared error (RMSE) values. The least error was found in the C treatment, which means 0.34 MAE and 0.45 t ha-1 RMSE. The simulation resulted in higher errors in the I75 and I50 treatments. -
Measuring projectmanagement efficiency by Data Envelopment Analysis
121-124Views:260I suppose that there is a relation between the success of EU-funded projects and the effectiveness of project management teams which implement them. To examine the accuracy of the assumption and the nature of the relationship I needed a measurement method that was suitable for measuring the effectiveness of project management teams implementing EU funded projects in a given construction. Since Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has already been used to measure the efficiency of decision making units in other areas, it seems suitable for measuring project management effectiveness and indirectly measuring project efficiency.
-
Significance of risk assessment metric in audit of financial statements and reports
215-225Views:216Management and decision-support of today’s businesses require design and application of management reports based and high-end controlling systems. One of the main source of information for controlling systems is financial accounting that should be designed to support planning, controlling and monitoring systems. Financial and accounting information is essential for decision making support of organizations. Therefore
eligible assurance is needed that these information are true and fair. Internal and external financial audits as assurance qualifiers are linking to the controlling systems through assurance. Weaknesses of and threats to controlling systems shall be recovered and communicated to the management during qualifying process. Recovering of threats should be based on risk analysis, assessment. In this study I would like to present some methods and tools of risk assessment of financial reports, statements and a way on they can be further developed. -
The effect of water supply and crop year on the yield potential of sweet maize (Zea mays L. convar. saccharata Koern.) hybrids with different genotypes
203-210Views:385The successfulness of crop production is significantly affected by not only the the average yields that provide cost effectiveness, but also the success of striving for yield safety, therefore, varieties and hybrids tolerant to environmental stress factors are worth being included into the sowing structure. Our aim was to further the decision making of producers in prepaering the right sowing structure by the evaluation of sweet maize hybrids’ tolerance to excess rainfall.
We performed our examinations in an extremely wet year (2010) on chernozem soil on three sweet maize hybrids (GSS 8529, GSS 1477, Overland) in 12 replications. Comparing the yields of 2010 with those that can be expected under optimal rainfall conditions, we showed that the examined hybrids react to the amount of rainfall higher than their needs with yield depression. The excess rainfall tolerance of the examined hybrids is different in the case of each hybrid. -
A growth model to predict body weight and body composition of broilers
17-24Views:508Models predicting the nutrient partitioning and animal performance have been developed for decades. Nowadays, growth models are used in practical animal nutrition, and they have particular importance in precision livestock farming. The aim of the present study was to introduce a broiler model and to provide examples on model application. The model predicts protein and fat deposition as well as the body weight of an individual broiler chicken from digestible nutrient intake over time. Feed intake (FI) and the digestible nutrient content of the feed are inputs as well as some animal factors like: initial BW, feed intake at 1 and 2 kg of BW, precocity and mean protein deposition. The protein and energy metabolism is represented as in the classical nutrient partitioning models. The protein deposition (PD) is driven by digestible amino acid supply and is under “genetic control”, the so-called potential PD limits the actual PD if protein is oversupplied.
The authors discuss how the model can be used to simulate the animal response upon different scenarios. Examples are given to show that the diet might be limiting if some animal trait is changed. Applicability of the model has shown through running the model by using different feed strategies (three- vs five-phase-feeding) and variations with animal factors. In conclusion, growth models are useful tools to support decision making for defining the most suitable feeds used in a broiler farm. The model presented in this paper shows a high sensibility and flexibility to test different scenarios. By challenging the model with different inputs, the animal response in terms of changes in body weight and feed conversion can be understood more by studying the shift in deposition of chemical constituents. The examples provided in the present paper shows the benefit of using mathematical models and their applicability in precision nutrition. It can be concluded that the growth model helps to apply “from desired feed to desired food” concept.
-
Extras of the rural system of areas
271-273Views:212The essay describes the rural system of areas as a system unit of mutually necessitating natural, social, economic and human environments. A new rural developmental model has been developed to achieve the effects that strengthen this system. The taxonomically interpreted effects are achieved through guiding projects. The author presents the connections of biomass – bioenergy generation to covey the message in practice.
-
Conceptional Model of Regional Agricultural Water Management System
199-209Views:640Our study focuses on the water management improvement of the Hajdúsági-löszhát (loess ridge). The Hajdúsági-löszhát (loess ridge) is an intensive agricultural area. At the same time, the problem of increasing water demand is still not solved, so towards of safety production irrigation should be improved. To realise this should be known not even agricultural water demands but industrial and urban ones as well, thus a complex water management system is required to be worked out.
In the first part of the research, the water demand in the area is mapped, then a conceptional model of the Hajdúsági-löszhát’s (loess ridge’s) water management system is created. After collecting data the water management scenario is summarized in a real time model splitted into five periods.
During the research, the instruments of spatial informatics (GIS) are used to get acquainted with the variation of the hydrological parameters in space and time. To understand and simulate the different decision making processes and to choose the right decision alternative, a decision support system is created with the use of spatial informatics data.
In addition, considering the potentially right decision alternative, irrigation will be started in practice, an effect and after-effect inquiry will be made, and the results will be analysed, evaluated and summarized. Finally, a suggestion to the most adequate irrigation technology will be made.