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Analysis of the efficiency of higher education systems
207-214Views:74The aim of the higher education reform process both in Hungary and in the European countries is establishing a competitive, qualitative higher education. The Education Minister of our country regularly emphasizes in his statements that the quantitative changes of he past 15 years are completed, from now the emphasis must be on quality :„a degree in itself is not sufficient, the actual knowledge behind is necessary”. To achieve
this aim, the government carried out several changes in the field of higher education in the past years, one of them was implementing a budget support system in accordance with the performance of the institutions. The objective of the three year long support agreement between the state and the higher education institutions is considering quality parameters and outputs beside and instead of normative (input-based) support. The other occurent and debated issue is the introduction of tuition fees. Although this plan was rejected by the national referendum on 9th March, 2008, some weeks ago an amendment bill was passed, which would mean bringing tuition fees back in the system.
In my paper I am examining whether the efficiency of higher education systems are influenced by the extent of the contribution of the state and the private sector to their expenses. Furthermore I’d like to find the answer to the following question: Does it matter what principles and mechanisms play role by the distribution of the state support between the institutions of higher education. -
Coherence and connection between the good pond culture practice and the environment conscious management
60-73Views:73According to the data indicating the decline and restructuring during the past decade, as well as the trend in the European Union member states, it can be expected that the role of traditional agriculture and fish production in direct rural employment decrease further. This also values those strategic directions for restructuring that will lead fishculture from quantity driven to quality production along with sustainable development (i.e. environmental conscious production) and multifunctional farming. This way the economic and social tensions caused by the concentration of the production and labour output can be mitigated.
It is laid in the 1257/1999 Act on rural Development that farmers that enrol the agri-environmental scheme should follow the “Good Agricultural Practice” on the whole managed area. In case of agri-environmental schemes this is a precondition for which no grants are given.
The adaptation of “Good Agricultural Practice” in fishproduction,where it is called: “Good Pond Culture Practice” is considered important on the basis of the above mentioned. This programme is undertaken in co-operation with the Research Institute for Aquaculture, Fisheries and Irrigation, University of Debrecen, Faculty of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development and the Association of Hungarian Fish Farmers and Product Council.
The European Commission proposed the formulation of the European Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EFAF) for the period 2007-20013, which will replace the Financial Instruments for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG), but it also consists of several new elements and will be working differently, too. According to the proposal the budget for the Fund will be nearly 5 billion EUR (4963 million EUR). The development level of aquaculture and fisheries and the social and economic significance in the given member state will be considered when distributing the Fund between the Member States.
According to the plan the Fund is organised along five priority axes, of which the most important for the Hungarian fisheries sector is No. II: Aquaculture and the processing and marketing of aquaculture and fisheries products. The main measure areas are the followings:
1. investment support for aquaculture;
2. support for aquatic-environmental schemes;
3. environmental- and animal health issues;
4. investments in processing and marketing
In case of accessing support under measure area No. 2 farms are obliged to meet the requirements of the scheme beyond the “good management practice” for 5 years, which is to be supervised by the approved body of the Member State. For this reason our work is considered to be substantial.
Approval of the application of “Good Pond Culture Practice” is based on two elements: first the prevailing environmental and nature conservation regulations, as well as the list of controllable conditions in the new agri-environmental agreements are to be met. “Good Pond Culture Practice” are to be conducted on the whole farm area. Its main elements are:
- nutrition management,
- feeding,
- pond maintenance,
- stocking,
- harvesting,
- animal welfare (storage and over-wintering). -
Experiment of quality properties of dehydrated fruits
7-15Views:100The lyophilization is the joint application of freezing and drying. It is an up-to-date conserving procedure, the point of which is that the humidity existing in the frozen humid material is transferred from the solid state directly into the gaseous state at a temperature below 0 oC under vacuum. Out of the procedures applied nowadays, this is the most tolerant drying process.
With regard to the high investment and operational costs, freeze drying is applied only for valuable, heat-sensitive materials when the technological aim is to preserve such properties as aroma, taste and colour as well as such components as proteins and vitamins. This procedure is suitable for drying and conserving certain foodstuffs, stimulants, organic chemicals, medicines and similar sensitive and valuable materials.
In our institute, we have been conducting freeze drying experiments with regional fruits and vegetables since the year 2005. During the first phase, we examined the heat- and material transfer as well as the abstraction of humidity, while during the second phase we analysed the rehydration ability and nutrient content of the freeze-dried materials as compared to those dried with the method of convection. Moreover we have conducted penetration measurements with a portable hardness tester.
To sum up the results gained so far, we can state that the quality of the lyophilized materials is better than those dried in the traditional way. It originates partly in the fact that the temperature and pressure applied for the freeze drying are smaller and the drying period is far longer than for the convection drying.
In contrast to convection-dried materials, freeze dried materials set in close to their original water-content, keep their original shape and size after being rehydrated. The reason of it the porous, spongy structure (flexible cell wall) of the lyophilized products which is able to take up moisture quickly. In addition, the lyophilized products can be rehydrated faster than those dried in the traditional way.
Regarding the results of the chemical analyses, the following conclusion can be drawn: the vacuum freeze drying results a small decrease of nutrient content and nutritive value for the lyophilized products.
The results of the hardness tests support the statement that the majority of agricultural materials cannot be considered as an ideal flexible body, because during the experiment the flexibility coefficient changed when going from the surface of the material inwards. In addition, the penetration tests also confirm that the surface of the convection-dried vegetables is at least 1.5-3 times harder than that of the freeze-dried products. The reason of it that it takes place during the drying denaturation processes.
The article summarizes the results of our research work listed above, in accordance with our experiments conducted by using the characteristic fruits (apple, plum) of the Nyírség Region. -
Valuation of the National Agricultural Environmental Management Project’s Extensive Grassland Farming Target Project in Two Counties
20-25Views:64The National Agricultural Environmental Management Project’s (NAEMP) extensive grassland farming project is aimed at extensive cultivation on of nearly 1.1 million hectares of grassland, and at improving the state of grasslands with nature- and environment protecting methods. By using the 2002 data (the NAEMP’s first year’s data), I came to the following conclusions: Within the Extensive grassland farming project, a state subsidy was applied for on 8.94% of Hungary’s total grasslands. In Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg and Hajdú-Bihar counties, applied for state subsidies covered 12% of the grassland of the counties.10.45% of the projects arrived from the county of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, and 28.56% from the county of Hajdú-Bihar. In Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, the support was 37.7% of the total subsidy, while in Hajdú-Bihar, it was 37.1%, unlike nationwide, which was 30.1%.The intensity of the applications is respectively 1.7 and 2.5 times more than the National (1.24) value.
In my view, in some fields, which are not between nature protected areas you’d better consider permitting intensive cultivation, simultaneously with grazing, with the observation of nature- and environmental regulations. -
Today’s judgment of sub-statistical regions, the sources of development in the most disadvantaged areas, and the experiences of their utilization in the Sarkad area
105-110Views:56The system of our nation’s sub-statistical regions is before a change; its role in the Hungarian public administration has to be settled, which will be one of the most significant tasks of the forthcoming years. A prevalent question among the learned professionals is whether the sub-statistical regions will become local governments or they will keep their regulating and taskperforming functions? Public administration system of sub-statistical regions can be framed around three functions, which also determine the complements of the establishment: local government function, area development function, polity function. A strategic question is the equalization and development of the most disadvantaged. Here is where the LHH project, aiming at the development of the most disadvantaged sub-statistical regions, provides support. The main message of the program initiated by the government is “we will not abandon anyone”. In my article, the current state of the program in Sarkad’s sub-statistical region,
the area of my study, will be discussed. -
Investment funding programs on dairy farms in Hajdú-Bihar County
11-16Views:166The dairy farming sector needs constant modernization of its buildings, machines and technology in order to maintain its competitiveness and productivity. For the greater scale investments, these companies try to apply for state funds in addition to their own financial sources. Therefore, the investment support system plays a great role by improving the competitiveness and modernity of these farms. In the last 10 years, 7 funding programs were available for dairy farms. In this research, 25 dairy farms were interviewed in Hajdú-Bihar County. The examined farms cover more than 50% of the milk production in Hajdú-Bihar County. The survey questions focused on the investment funding program use of farms between 2007 and 2017 and renewable energy investments including all programs. The results show how many tenders were submitted, how many were successfully evaluated and completed. All farms had at least two successfully evaluated projects. A correlation was found between completed projects by farm size and completed projects. The connection of the modernity index of dairy farms and the completed projects was also shown.
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The Valuation System of the National Land Fund
317-323Views:79The aim of establishing a National Land Fund was to realise the rational management of land property belonging to the Hungarian State, to assist in the realisation of estate political directives, and also to support the development of a modern property structure based on family farms. During this 3 years operation the National Land Fund has become the major player of the Hungarian land market. It has arranged land trades totaling 15,000 hectares, which makes 50% of total related turnover. The NLF created the reason for the existence of land as credit security with the provision of security of mortgage credits. National Land Fund has written co-operation contracts with 11 commercial banks in order to provide long-term agricultural mortgage with the background of land security. NLF has issued almost 1,000 conditional declarations of land purchase to the banks, helping the credit system of agricultural companies.
The valuation system „TÉR” created by the National Land Fund, is a many-sided, flexible system adjusted to Hungarian conditions. This evaluation system can determine the value of land in a reliable way. NLF built further controls into the process with the co-operation of independent revisers providing real determination of land value. -
The Dg RES generation, storage, utilization and integration program ’1 village – 1 MW’ of the Bükk-Miskolc Region, Phase 1–3.
233-235Views:84The usage of renewable energy sources (RES) and the increase of energy efficiency could be the solution for the difficulties of the rural impoverished inhabitants. A rural development company with the support of the communities designs the development resources from the EU and the Hungarian State for RES generation and organizes the ’1 village – 1 MW’ RES generation, storage, distribution and usage integration.