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An Applicable Method for Elaborating Agricultural Logistics Trends
66-69Views:201Hungarian scientific practice focuses mainly on statistical methods to elaborate sector-specific trends. This paper aims to offer another alternative. The author’s view is that in rapidly and significantly changing markets, data extrapolation is not necessarily the ideal way to forecast certain trends of the sector. Agricultural Supply Chains have been restructured lately. There are remarkable developments in fields such as: warehousing systems, telematic systems, transportation. This is one of the reasons several drivers may alter the trends determined previously by statistical professionals. AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) synthesizes expert opinions concerning the future, so it is a decision-supporting method and therefore more flexible to the changes of the sector. The author introduces the application of the AHP for Agricultural Logistics Trends.
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A global bibliographic review of soil variability trends on arable land: An impetus to sustainable land management
27-39Views:86Crop production is significantly affected by soil properties under the influence of climate, management practices, and geographical location. Soil variability affects the development, quality, biochemical reactions, and heterogeneity of soil. The most recent research has focused on soil variability monitoring, highlighting the importance of soil testing. This review aimed at identifying global research trends and assessing soil testing in monitoring variability on arable land, based on the bibliographic method. Literature search in Scopus Database (2020-2023) yielded 8,898 documents, refined to 815 articles. VOSviewer 1.6.20 Software was used for analysing exported data. The results revealed a growing emphasis on monitoring soil variability, with key countries including India, United States of America (USA), China, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and Brazil. Funding mainly came from Asia, North America, and Europe. Common monitoring approaches included soil tests and remote sensing, focusing on organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, microorganisms, and soil moisture. However, digital illiteracy and high costs were major hindrances to using remote sensing and modern soil testing tools. The study suggests that whereas soil variability monitoring is essential for sustainable land management, development of affordable soil testing equipment and improved digital education are needed for its enhanced adoption.
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Education and language teaching in the light of recent social and economic needs
23-29Views:144This paper attempts to describe several general educational potentials that are assumed to facilitate adequate pedagogical response to the recent economic and social paradigm shifts that have resulted in marked changes in the requirements for the labour force on the global job market.
The article describes the most powerful pedagogical trends of the 20th century, selectively concentrating on the assessment of their contribution to and share in the preparation of the inevitably forthcoming paradigm shift in education.
Topic related issues of language teaching in an academic setting are then discussed, focusing particularily on English for Specific Purposes, followed by a more thorough analysis of the major types of ESP syllabi. This analysis attempts to identify those properties that empower ESP teaching to give a more sophisticated answer (as compared to general language teaching) to issues raised by the appearance of new trends and needs in the
global job market.
The paper offers conclusions for consideration as to the responsibility of language teachers and strategy makers in higher education, acting in an intercultural environment. -
New challenges in soil management
91-92Views:331Soil management represents two important tasks that are harmonization of the soil protection with demands of the crop to be grown on the given land under prevailing farming condition. Further goals are to preserve and/or develop the soil physical, biological and chemical condition and to avoid the unfavourable changes of the soil biological activity and the soil structure. Classical authors emphasised the importance of creating proper seedbed for plants. In the physical approach, tillage was believed to play an important role in controlling soil processes. Consequently, the period of several centuries dominated by this approach is referred to as the era of crop-oriented tillage (Birkás et al., 2017). The overestimation of the importance of crop requirements resulted in damaging the soils, which inevitably led to turn to the soil-focused tillage. Since the first years of climate change, as the new trends have raised concern, tillage must be turned into a climate-focused effort with the aim of reducing climate-induced stresses through improving soil quality.The development of soil management has always been determined by the economical background. At the same time, deteriorating site conditions have contributed to the conception of new tillage trends by forcing producers to find new solutions (e.g. dry farming theory in the past or adaptable tillage theory nowadays). Győrffy (2009) recited the most important keywords were listed in 2001 and that seemed to be important in the future of crop production. These keywords (endeavours) were as follows:− Biofarming, organic farming, alternative farming, biodynamic farming, low input sustainable agriculture;− Mid-tech farming, sustainable agriculture, soil conservation farming, no till farming, environmentally sound, environmentally friendly, diversity farming;− Crop production system, integrated pest management, integrated farming, high-tech farming;− Site specific production, site-specific technology, spatial variable technology, satellite farming;− Precision farming.Győrffy’s prognosis proved to be realistic and the efforts mentioned above have mostly been implemented. New challenges have also appeared in soil management in relation to the last decades. The most important endeavours for the future are:1) Preserving climate-induced stresses endangering soils.2) Turn to use climate mitigation soil tillage and crop production systems.3) Applying soil management methods are adaptable to the different soil moisture content (over dried or wet may be quite common).4) Use effectual water conservation tillage.5) Use soil condition specific tillage depth and method.6) Adapting the water and soil conservation methods in irrigation.7) Preserving and improving soil organic matter content by tillage and crop production systems.8) Considering that stubble residues are matter for soil protection, humus source and earthworm’ feed.9) Site-specific adoption of green manure and cover crops.10) Applying site-adopted (precision) fertilization and crop protection. Considering the development in agriculture, new endeavours will occur before long. -
Trends in Dry Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Production
53-58Views:291Dry pea is an important, cool-season grain legume, which is grown worldwide on over 6 million hectares. The major producing countries outside Europe are China and Canada, followed by India, Australia, and the United States. France, Canada and Australia produce over 2 million hectares and are major exporters of peas. During the 1980’s, in developed countries of the European Union, pea production rose yearly by 6-10%, which represents a significant increase in both area and yield. Europe accounts for 50-75% of world pea production. In the 1990’s, the European Union produced 4-5 million tonnes of dry pea, of which 3-4 million tonnes were used for feed and 1 million tonnes for export. At the end of the 20th century, the growth in production was low, mainly because of the absence of support measures, and the better returns offered by other crops. In the countries of the former Soviet Union, dry pea was primarily used as feed and pea production dropped, due to a trend in livestock raising.
Food consumption of dry pea is concentrated in developing countries, where grain legumes represent a useful complement to cereal-based diets as a relatively inexpensive source of high quality protein. As a result, human consumption of grain legumes fell from 2,2 kg/capita in 1961 to 0,5 kg/capita in 1999. The importance of grain legumes in food protein supply decreased, while that of cereal products increased. Shortage of grain legumes has adverse effects on the nutritional standard of poor people in developing countries.
World dry pea production reached 16,7 million tonnes in 1990, with 3,7 million tonnes used as food, 11,4 million tonnes used as feed, and 1,0 million tonnes used as seed. Dry pea production was 10,9 million tonnes in 1999, and 3,5, 5,8 and 0,8 million tonnes was used as food, feed and seed, respectively. In the coming decades, world grain legume production and utilization as feed are expected to expand at a slower rate than in the 1980’s. Most of the increase is expected to occur in Eastern European countries, Canada and Australia, where production is anticipated to grow at 2% annually. The projection for the new millennium was derived from adjusted trends in area and yield over the period 1961-2000, based on FAO statistical data. -
The situation and role of higher education in the North Hungary region
91-96Views:212Northern 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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Evaluation of technologies and resources from the spatial and social aspect
73-75Views:431The basic functioning of the world is mostly led by negative trends. One of the fundamental reasons for this phenomenon is that the different technologies (hardware, software, resources) do not act properly and in the proper structure by means of the produced products and services. Therefore, the examination of technologies and resources is a key question of our world and development from various aspects. Technologies convey all positive and negative impacts which can be regarded as the fundamental reasons and causes of harmonious or disharmonious development. For this reason, the role of technologies in development and harmonious functioning is of paramount importance.
As a final conclusion, we established that the different technologies (hardware, software, resources) are interpreted as impact conveyors which predominate by means of products and services in a way that their relation system is determined. By using the thermodynamic interpretation which is the basis of the functioning of the world, we built a system consisting of 14 elements to evaluate different technologies, to interpret its functioning and to develop positive interactions and trends.
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Employment trends in the Northern Great Plain’s Region
109-111Views:181Hungary can be divided into 7 regions, of which I am writing about the Northern Great Plain Region in this article. The Northern Great Plain consists of the counties Hajdú-Bihar, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg. There are 389 settlements in the region, which can be considered rather few. The population of the region is nearly 1.5 million, which is nearly 15% of the total population. This region is one of the most disadvantageous regions in Hungary, with its economic indicators ranking the lowest of all regions. Nevertheless, as regarding education and agriculture, the region is considered to be a prominent area.
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New and innovative consumer demands and expectations on the Hungarian food market
485-499Views:138Food and eating have always encompassed more than the simple intake of nutrients; therefore, when thinking about food consumption, we need to examine several groups of influencing factors whose correlations from the aspect of the consumer are described by a complicated matrix. This paper focuses on the selection of signs indicating new and innovative consumer behaviours, and on the megatrends that are the driving forces of transitions and that lead to the consequences of strikingly reconsidered consumer decisions nowadays. The authors stress that there are qualitative and structural changes in food consumption in Hungary, with an increasing quantity of differentiated consumer demands appearing, a few of them influencing our everyday decisions even at
the concept level. The findings of primary research originated from a personal questionnaire survey consisting of 2001 respondents, in which we also focused on the attitude towards eating and media consumption related to gastronomy.
This paper is an introduction to the market segments detectable in the present Hungarian population aged 15–74 in the topics concerned. -
Present situation and future prospects for Hungarian fruit and vegetable sector
31-38Views:151Changes in people’s lifestyles and the emergence of nutritional science have created favorable opportunities for a boom in fruit and vegetable consumption, which have been fully exploited by the adaptive fruit producer and exporter countries. Unfortunately, Hungary is not one of these countries. Affected by a number of uncertainty factors, the Hungarian fruit and vegetable sector has fallen behind international trends, seeking opportunities for survival (Erdész, 2007).
The impacts of the country’s accession to the EU have been more adverse than expected. While no administrative measures are used to control production and the increasing competition and import have put Hungarian producers to a loosing position. The cooperation producers, the well-organized work of professionals and the coordinated activity of producers marketing organizations may resolved some of the problems affecting the sector.
The fruit and vegetable sector can also anticipate significant changes during the new seven-years budget period of the CAP reform.
With the new drat reform of the sector, the European Commission intends to simplify the common organization of the fruit and vegetable market, improve competitiveness, increase market orientation, promote fruit and vegetable consumption and to continue the environmental efforts.
Hungary has had great expectations concerning the reform of market regulation, but the Commission proposal didn’t bear out the expectations, because the new proposal includes insignificant changes in important issues and fails to provide sufficient additional resources for the catching up of he new member states. -
Expansion of the small cable television counterparts of market leading commercial channels in view of Hungarian regional and social aspects
107-110Views:268Currently, there are 102 Hungarian-language television channels in Hungary. TV2 Hungary is the second largest commercial television channel. Current trends in the television market in Europe indicate that large channels are expanding their portfolios while at the same time selling their smaller units. This trend has now affected Hungary as well.
After having TV2 for 16 years, MTM-SBS Television Ltd. eventually expanded its portfolio with three new cable channels. The first new channel was FEM3, a channel directed at women, which was launched on January 1, 2010. A year later, the male channel, PRO4, was launched and finally, SuperTV2, primarily a premium entertainment channel, was launched on November 2, 2012. Although the main channel, TV2, remained free, the new pay channels on cable received a significant amount of investment from venture capitalists and Pro7Sat1 for the development of new content.
SuperTV2 is a premium channel. When the channel was launched, the goal was to target those viewers who had turned away from watching the increasingly less-sophisticated content on the commercial channels as well as those who were not drawn to the programming on public television. When the viewer stats were examined, the channel had proven itself. The premium brand of Super TV2 was successful in attracting new viewers and consumers and within a year it had gained a strong foothold over more than 100 other Hungarian-language channels.
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Renewal of the city network in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg country after the political restructuring
21-25Views:170After World War I., but especially from the second half of the 20th century the public policy development is determinative in urban development. The urban and the country planning appears under the auspices of the regional development policy between the world wars. After 1945 the primary goal in economic and development policy was the socialist industrialization, with a priority on cities. In this period the driving force in urban development primarily were the industrial installations. As a result, economic and social structure was transformed. It is a fact, that planned economy gave a huge impulse to city network, which determine the trend of cities up to this day. After the regime change, as an effect of escalation of regional differences and as a result of economic processes the urban development took new directions. The state intervention changed, and the principles of decentralization prevailed in resource allocation. The private and non-profit sector appears in urban development, the governments gain more important roles. These three sectors became the movers of local development. To recognize the main trends of urban development in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, the local area development funds were examined in a special way in a given period. This study will show, the main tendencies of the consumption of decentralized regional development funds between 1996–2008, in the cities of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County. This study also gives an answer for which factors convert the renewal of city network of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County after the regime change.
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Dynamics of alfalfa production in Hungary: Changes in harvested area, yield, and total production over 30 years (1990 – 2024)
163-169Views:388Alfalfa is a crucial forage crop in Hungary, contributing to sustaining livestock feed and soil fertility management. To assess the dynamics of alfalfa crop production in the country, this study examines the variations and patterns in harvested area, total production, arable land area, and average yield of alfalfa over the previous three decades (1990 to 2024). Our findings reveal fluctuating patterns, with periods of increase and decrease in all parameters under study. While certain years exhibit growth due to favourable climatic conditions and improved agricultural practices, others show declines, potentially influenced by economic factors, changes in crop demand due to a decline in livestock production, and unfavourable climatic conditions, particularly drought. The analysis highlights the complication of alfalfa production trends, underscoring the need for expanding land area and adaptive strategies in Hungarian forage crop management to enhance alfalfa crop production to sustain livestock’s feeding system.
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Theoretical schools on employment and workforce
25-33Views:154In the civil economics, like in the case of any other socialeconomic issues, there are two coexistent theories concerning employment. On one hand we have the classical-neo-classical
school based on Adam Smith’s works. On the other hand we have the teachings based on John Maynard Keynes’ views. All the later hypotheses are based on these two trends.
Monetarism, which was invented at the beginning of the 20th century, mixes certain elements of both basic theories. Those who represent monetarism agree on rejecting the economy policy
means which affect the processes of the workforce market, while they consider these above mentioned means applicable to regulate certain processes. By the end of the 1970s the neo-classical macro-economics had developed, which completely refuses these approaches. A decade later the neo-Keynesian macro-economics developed. Its hypotheses regarding especially employment and unemployment lead to some of the employment issues of globalism, which is one of the most influential phenomena of present time. -
Effects of soil compost application on the leaf surface area per running meter of apple (Malus domesticaBorkh.) leaves cultivated in organic and integrated orchard
111-116Views:270The effect of different compost doses on the nutrient contents of the soil (in depth of 0–30) were measured in an (organic and integrated) apple orchards. The leaf surface area per running meter shoot for certain apple species (Golden Delicious and Pinova) were determined.
The field experiments were conducted in the Research Field of Debrecen-Pallag, University of Debrecen, the analysis of the soil and plant samples took place in the laboratories of the Institute of Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science.
The compost treatments increased the amount of the examined nutrients in the top 30 cm of soil originated from organic and integrated orchard. Changes in rainfall were observed in the trends of the leaf surface area of the two apple varieties. 2010 was rainy and 2012 was drier. The leaf surface area of the Pinova increased better under the precipitation/year effect, than in case of the nutrient supply treatments. The opposite was observed in case of the Golden Delicious. -
Problem analysis of health tourism sector
27-31Views:180On the basis of experts health tourism is one of the most dynamically developing sectors within tourism. The outstanding role of the sector is partly owing to increasing health consciousness and partly to aging society – beside numerous other factors. But health tourism in Hungary is hit by several problems in spite of the fact that recently particular attention is paid to this sector. It can be mentioned as a difficulty that supply of education system is not in conformity with market demands, thus fresh supply of experts is not appropriate. As a world trend, classic position of thermal baths based on natural curative factors is getting to be displaced by adventure baths, which is unfavourable for health tourism. Notwithstanding that Hungary is in a distinguished place on a world scale as regards tourist arrivals, yet we are only in a mid-filed position relating to industrial revenues. Suppliers of this sector do not pay enough attention to disabled persons. The established TDM Organisations have to cope with numerous challenges. Nevertheless experts agree that high support of health tourism can be suggested despite to problems, market risks and significant international competition. However, this support has to be more aimed than before and has to be rather founded on world trends.
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Soil, nutrient, and fertiliser requirements for maize (Zea mays) production: A narrative review
85-97Views:803Maize (Zea mays) is a key staple crop essential for global food security, with its productivity heavily influenced by soil, nutrient, and fertiliser management. This review examines the requirements for optimal maize production by analysing recent literature on soil properties, nutrient uptake, and fertilisation practices. A systematic approach was used to gather relevant studies from Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science, focusing on peer-reviewed articles, books, and conference proceedings published in the last 10 years. Keywords such as “maize soil requirements” and “nutrient management for maize” guided the search, and both global and region-specific research were included to capture diverse agricultural systems and environments. Key insights were extracted to understand best practices, challenges, and technological advancements influencing maize yield. The findings provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge on soil and nutrient management for maize cultivation, highlighting optimal practices and emerging trends in fertilisation techniques. The review aims to support improved management strategies for yield maximisation and sustainable maize production across various agricultural landscapes, ensuring food security in the face of changing environmental conditions.
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Development and Economic Benefits of Open Source Software
161-168Views:154This 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. -
Caliometric characterisation of crop production byproducts
55-58Views:230By the decreasing tendency of the fossil energy resources more emphasis put on the usage of renewable energy resources. The consideration of environmental protection and the efforts of the European Union make current the widespread usage of renewable energy within biomass energy. One of the determinative trends of biomass energy is the direct combustion of biomass. Characteristically woody stocks are produced for this aim, but there is a considerable potential in several byproducts of growing herbaceous plants or of other processes.
In our study three byproducts of plant production have been investigated which appeared at the harvest. The Higher Heating Values of wheat, maize and sunflower byproducts have been determined by an IKA C2000 Basic adiabatic calorimeter. According to the statistical analysis of the measured data the HHV of the byproducts are different, and these values are in a negative correlation with the amount of ash in % (R2=0.873) appeared by the combustion.
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The effects of education, culture, research and development in Hajdú-Bihar county
87-90Views:493The most important instrument of social advancement and economic development is the education system. The educational qualification of the population of Hajdú-Bihar county is continuously improving, however the census data of the year 2001 show that the educational qualification of the population of the county did not reach the national average. The educational qualification of the county’s population is higher at the county seat and in other cities and lower in small municipalities. The county’s ratio is strongly influenced by the data of the county seat Debrecen and that of Hajdúszoboszló sub region.
The unfavorable educational level of the region is related to the migration tendencies and the brain-draining trends of the past decades, as a consequence of which the population of the less developed eastern regions has moved either to the capital, or to the county seats, or larger cities of the region. The young are increasingly affected by the process.
The number of kindergartens in the county corresponds to the national average, therefore taking into consideration the regional demographic characteristics the aim should be the equalization of regional disproportions. The number of students per 1000 resident within the Northern Great Plain Region and in the county significantly exceeds the national average. The secondary school network of the county consists of 38 secondary grammar- and 51 secondary vocational schools.
The secondary schools of Debrecen have considerable impact on the county’s secondary education. The vocational training network of Hajdú-Bihar county is a large, in its conditions highly differentiated institutional network in which all types of secondary vocational institutions are present with secondary technical-, vocational-, accredited higher vocational-, specialized or preparatory vocational-, and special skill enhancement programmes. The majority of the secondary institutions have regional, rarely national enrollment.
Students who have the intention to continue their studies in higher education within the county can study in Debrecen or Hajdúböszörmény.
The integrated University of Debrecen has the highest student number within the country and it offers the widest range of academic programmes in Hungarian higher education. The University of Debrecen with the wide range of graduate and postgraduate educational programmes, unified academic qualification system, English language programmes is a European standard scientific centre of the Trans-Tisza Region. The county’s higher education takes exceeding share beyond its weight in the education of Natural Sciences (Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Mathematics), Health- and Social Sciences, Agricultural- and Environmental Sciences and Information Technology, which positively influences its educational structure. The county’s share in the education of Humanities (Hungarian Language, Foreign Languages, History, Archeology, Philosophy) is also significant.
6.3% of the country’s scientific researchers work in the county. In 2010 7.0% of the country’s R+D expenditure was spent here. 3/4 of the region’s research capacity is in Hajdú-Bihar county employed either by the University of Debrecen or by the research teams of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
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The status of conservation and management of indigenous sheep breeds in South Africa - A review
79-91Views:449Indigenous sheep breeds in South Africa play an important role in local food security and they are adapted to local conditions. Their genetic and cultural values have to be recognised for national importance. The conservation of these breeds is very critical as most of them are already classified as endangered. The South African government has the initiative to attempt the conservation of these animals; however, it comes with several challenges. In addition to funding, breed conservation demands farmers to understand and recognise the role of such breeds in society. This is especially crucial in the rural communal lands where breeds are kept. Farmers that raise indigenous breeds should be taught the necessity of maintaining the purity of these breeds. Indigenous sheep breeds in South Africa are not favored by the commercial farmers and thus they are more vulnerable. This review outlines the nature of sheep farming and the conservation status of four indigenous sheep breeds in South Africa. The effort and challenges that are met in current conservation arrangements are discussed. Moreover, we emphasise on the conservation techniques that are employed in South Africa.
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Relationship of the employment policy with rural development in the European Union
27-36Views:154Employment policy has won primary attention both at national and EU levels for the past decade. Managing its problems has become one of the major social economic and political challenges. One of the problems is the aging of the continent’s population, which is in close relation with the slow increasing or decreasing economic trends.
Comparing the EU’s unemployment, employment and labour productivity rates to those of ten years earlier a positive tendency can be traced. On of the other hand compared with the USA, Japan or the average of OECD countries the Community has still not been able to reduce its several decades lasting leeway. Difficulties of labour management are much more striking in rural territories than in urban districts. Not even the second pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy: the rural development has been successful in managing the employment of the labour superseded
from the primer sector so far, which is significantly reflected in the unfavourable indicators of labour management and unemployment. -
Management of phytopathogens by application of green nanobiotechnology: Emerging trends and challenges
15-22Views:534Nanotechnology is highly interdisciplinary and important research area in modern science. The use of nanomaterials offer major advantages due to their unique size, shape and significantly improved physical, chemical, biological and antimicrobial properties. Physicochemical and antimicrobial properties of metal nanoparticles have received much attention of researchers. There are different methods i.e. chemical, physical and biological for synthesis of nanoparticles. Chemical and physical methods have some limitations, and therefore, biological methods are needed to develop environment-friendly synthesis of nanoparticles. Moreover, biological method for the production of nanoparticles is simpler than chemical method as biological agents secrete large amount of enzymes, which reduce metals and can be responsible for the synthesis and capping on nanoparticles.
Biological systems for nanoparticle synthesis include plants, fungi, bacteria, yeasts, and actinomycetes. Many plant species including Opuntia ficus-indica, Azardirachta indica, Lawsonia inermis, Triticum aestivum, Hydrilla verticillata, Citrus medica, Catharanthus roseus, Avena sativa, etc., bacteria, such as Bacillus subtilis, Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria, Pseudomonas stutzeri, Lactobacillus sp., Klebsiella aerogenes, Torulopsis sp., and fungi, like Fusarium spp. Aspergillus spp., Verticillium spp., Saccharomyces cerevisae MKY3, Phoma spp. etc. have been exploited for the synthesis of different nanoparticles. Among all biological systems, fungi have been found to be more efficient system for synthesis of metal nanoparticles as they are easy to grow, produce more biomass and secret many enzymes. We proposed the term myconanotechnology (myco = fungi, nanotechnology = the creation and exploitation of materials in the size range of 1–100 nm). Myconanotechnology is the interface between mycology and nanotechnology, and is an exciting new applied interdisciplinary science that may have considerable potential, partly due to the wide range and diversity of fungi.
Nanotechnology is the promising tool to improve agricultural productivity though delivery of genes and drug molecules to target sites at cellular levels, genetic improvement, and nano-array based gene-technologies for gene expressions in plants and also use of nanoparticles-based gene transfer for breeding of varieties resistant to different pathogens and pests. The nanoparticles like copper (Cu), silver (Ag), titanium (Ti) and chitosan have shown their potential as novel antimicrobials for the management of pathogenic microorganisms affecting agricultural crops. Different experiments confirmed that fungal hyphae and conidial germination of pathogenic fungi are significantly inhibited by copper nanoparticles. The nanotechnologies can be used for the disease detection and also for its management. The progress in development of nano-herbicides, nano-fungicides and nano-pesticides will open up new avenues in the field of management of plant pathogens. The use of different nanoparticles in agriculture will increase productivity of crop. It is the necessity of time to use nanotechnology in agriculture with extensive experimental trials. However, there are challenges particularly the toxicity, which is not a big issue as compared to fungicides and pesticides.
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Wine market trends in the EU and Hungary
101-105Views:186Traditions of the Hungarian grape and wine sector go back centuries. However, although this sector is proud of its rich traditions, it has gone through several shocks. Having joined the EU, Hungary has become a part of the integrated internal market. The commercial obstacles and difficulties among EU-members and Hungary have officially been removed. At the same time, within the Common Agricultural Policy, the wine market has been organised at community level by EU-members. There is no possibility for the sector to access any kind of direct supports from the Hungarian budget, unless such activity is definitely allowed by community directions or unless Hungary were authorized in the framework of a supplementary procedure. After joining the EU, the customs-protection - which aim was to protect the EU-market against the third countries - reduced, so wine producers from overseas countries emerged with their competitive wine prices in the home market and also became competitors of Hungarian wine producers who have been working under low technically equipped conditions. In order to increase the competitiveness of Hungarian wines, it is essential to improve the machinery of producers and to improve the equipment of winecellars. Finally, it is also vital that Hungarian wine producers develop a well-constructed marketing policy.
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The social basis of regional development in the North Great Plain Region
57-65Views:517It is a widely accepted practice in the European Union to break down countries into regions according to their stage of development, their cultural and economic characteristics. The basis of this methodology is the EU-conform MOTS system, which distinguishes territorial units on five levels. Besides the MOTS system, Hungary uses another system, too, which is the basis of our public administration, and whose roots go back to the times of King Saint Stephen: the county system. In Hungary, developmental decisions are taken by a county’s general assembly; at the same time, from an economic point of view the characteristics and competitive advantages of a county can be defined more precisely than those of a region.
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County and Hajdu-Bihaur County may be described with completely different characteristics, albeit both of them are part of the North Great Plain Region. On a county level economically important and justified developmental areas may be mapped more precisely.
Hajdu-Bihar County is the 4th most populous county in Hungary. With 80.2% of the population living in cities, the county is significantly urbanized. 2010 statistics show that the birth rate per 1,000 people in the county is practically the same as the birth rate of the country and that of the North Great Plain Region. Following the trends in developed countries, mothers now tend to give birth in an older age. Almost half (44.5%) of the children in Hajdu-Bihar County are born after their mother’s 30th birthday.
The general health condition of the population of Hajdu-Bihar County can be described with various indicators. In terms of medical and hospital care no difference can be observed between regional and national data, the county’s health care does not straggle behind. In sum, with the health care system of the county, estimated life expectancy of men is higher than the regional average, and in case of women it is higher than both the regional and national average, according to the given year’s mortality.
Children’s ratio among the county’s population is 15.9%, which is more than 1% over the national average. The ratio is higher in case of girls and boys alike. The income of the county’s population depends not only on labour income but also on social benefits. According to the analysis, the proportion of old-age pensioners and those receiving pension-like allowances within the whole population is somewhat lower in the county than the national average. The number of children receiving child-welfare and daytime care is prominent in the county.
The number of families and children receiving child-care allowance has not changed significantly in recent years. All important elements of social benefits have increased in the last decade. The quality of life of the county’s population is largely affected by the presence (or absence) of basic infrastructure in their environment. Research conducted at the settlements of the county shows that currently the greater part of the population has access to basic public utility services which form part of everyday services. Although they affect the general quality of life, the network of roads and passenger traffic have their real significance in terms of economic development. The county’s modern, paved road-system had already been built earlier.
Roads and pavements in inner-city areas have been paved up to 70%. The technical condition of roads and pavements can seriously impede the population’s mobility and it may hinder the development of certain settlements and districts.