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Health factor in soft drink consumption, German example
41-44Views:262Consumer lifestyle and health are relevant factors to understanding consumption preferences.The number of lifestyle diseases has dramatically increased worldwide. The main cause for these diseases is the change in lifestyle; including a lack of attention to physical activity and good nutrition. Health and lifestyle are important factors by purchase decision process. In accordance with these, I examine the consumer behaviour toward soft drinks with special regards to healthy lifestyle and the state of health. My examinations can be considered mainly as a qualitative research among German students, which can serve as a basis for further analyses and research, however, the conclusions and experience gained from it are worthy of consideration. I differentiated five categories: ice tea, carbonated soft drinks, fruit juices, mineral waters, sport and energy drinks and studied the consumer behaviour toward them. The study focuses on the consumption of these and the factors influencing their purchase with special regards to lifestyle.
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Portuguese agriculture and its role in multifunctional rural development
145-152Views:308AsinEurope,agricultureinPortugalissupposedtofulfill a multiplicity of roles. It should contribute to supply Portuguese population with quality and safe food, to be viable in a global, competitive, dynamic and aggressive market, to preserve precious cultural landscapes across country through sustainable land management, to assist rural areastobeattractiveandfeasibleandtosupportemployment and social cohesion. Nevertheless, adjustments are expected to adapt to new environmental conditions, mainly climate change, to minimize weaknesses, to hold new opportunities and face new challenges. Otherwise, increases on human desertification, rural areas abandonment and consequent negative effects on territory are predictable.
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Economic analysis of some agrotechnical factors in maize production - a Hungarian case study
5-16Views:632This paper focuses on the economic and statistical evaluation of the production technology findings of the polyfactorial maize production experiments carried out between 2015-2017 at the Látókép Experiment Site of the University of Debrecen, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management. The examined agrotechnical factors included irrigation, previous crop, tillage, crop density, hybrid and N nutrient supply, while the effect of different crop years was taken into consideration. In addition to descriptive statistical methods, we used multivariate regression analysis during the statistical evaluation. In the course of the evaluation, we examined three models that differed in terms of tillage methods and the consideration of crop year. In our best fit model, the factors were 71% responsible for the change in yield value. We carried out efficiency and comparative analyses in the course of the economic evaluation.
Averaged over the three examined years, it can be stated that nutrient supply and crop year had an outstanding effect on yield, while irrigation had a minimal effect. However, global warming may justify irrigation in the future, not only from a biological point of view, but also from an economic aspect.
Ideal tillage is also greatly affected by crop year, too. Altogether, of the examined tillage systems, subsoiling proved to be the best from an economic point of view.
Our investigations confirm that it is better to perform intensive farming under more favourable market conditions. The optimum of N fertilisation is probably outside of the range we examined, if the extreme changes in maize and fertiliser prices are ignored.JEL Classification: Q16, Q12, Q13, O32
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Hungarian spirits pálinka as a “Hungaricum” I. Literature review and practical approaches
133-141Views:659The history of alcoholic distillation dates back over thousands of years. Spirits arrived in Hungary by the mediation of foreign countries, and were used as medicine in the royal court already in the XIV. Century. The first written presence of the pálinka as a word originated in Debrecen (1572). The quality and alcohol degree of these drinks were increased continuously, and rose to ’Hungaricum’ rank due to several factors such as the quality of the fruit stock grown in our country, the technical development of distillers and several centuryold professional experience. Mitterpacher, who distinguished the main parts of the equipment, reviewed the determination methods of alcohol content, and made a proposal for coating the inner surface of the cauldron with tin in favour of the preparation of the high quality product, played an important role in the establishment of the literature of pálinka distillation. Subcontract distillation, considered as an individual peculiarity in the European Union, developed during a long time in Hungary. It was facilitated by the regulation of distillery plants allowing the operation also for private persons from 1983. The fame of Hungarian national drink increased greatly when the meaning of pálinka was defined punctually: those drinks could be called ’pálinka’, which had 100% fruit content containing no additives, prepared in Hungary and their alcohol content was at least 37.5%.
According to conservative evaluation, more than 50% of the Hungarian adult population consumes pálinka occasionally. The majority of the adult population believes that a small amount of pálinka is good for health; many people use it for the alleviation of toothache, sore throat and stomachache. Pálinka has a mood-enhancing impact at social parties and pleasant family events, if consumed in moderation. This paper is an overview of the history of Hungarian pálinka. This is the first part of the article. In the second part we analyze cost-benefit circumstances, and we also deal with the main problematic issue, namely the effect of tax-free production in Hungary and in the European Union. -
Agricultural policy and rural development
105-112Views:295The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a cornerstone of EU policy relating to rural areas. Initially, it aimed to provide a harmonised framework for maintaining adequate supplies, increasing productivity and ensuring that both consumers and producers received a fair deal in the market. These priorities have shifted to environmental and animal welfare concerns, as well as food safety and security aspects. As a consequence, the CAP has gradually moved from a production-based structure of subsidies to a market-oriented system, integrating standards for food, environment and biodiversity, as well as animal welfare. In 2010, the EU launched an extensive debate on the future of the CAP, as the European Union needs a better tailored, reformed Common Agricultural Policy to answer the challenges of food, growth and jobs in rural areas. The European agriculture must address the expectations of rural society and demands of the market concerning public goods, the environment and climate change. This raises questions of whether the CAP payments in the past have been effective in achieving their objectives and whether direct payments should be continued for supporting agricultural environmental issues.
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Value in grass: Matter of fibre and carbs
Views:533Climate adaptation is a major challenge. Chasing the sufficient amount of hay is getting in higher priority. Distant mass hay producers give favourable offers despite long distances. Quality is also gaining position and indicators like RFQ (Relative Forage Quality) is highlighting the marketing language. Hay market as we knew no longer exists in Hungary. Most farmers produce their own hay and do not spend extra cents to buy bales. Climate change however, force them to adapt and store more bales for the future. Horse owners and dairy farmers are the main driver to convince hay producers to provide high quality forage. We gathered Hungarian regional hay-price information and evaluated the trends in this sector. The demand-driven hay-price is in contradiction with premium quality timothy grass hay.
JEL code: Q11
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The economic and social role of private farms in Hungarian agriculture
33-41Views:286The situation and importance of private farms in Hungary have significantly changed and are still changing due to the political and economic regime change of 1989-90 and subsequent events. The aim of this study is to provide – unlike the practice of the last two decades – an impartial review of the social and economic role of Hungarian private farms. To demonstrate the changes occurring in private farms, we rely on the data of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO-KSH)such as the General Structure Surveys, the Farm Structure Surveys, and tables from the online stADAT database.
From the point of view of methodology, time series analyses (2000–2010) were performed in the framework of this secondary research. Our hypothesis that private farms in Hungary deserve much more attention than previously, from the perspective of the output of Hungarian agriculture, food consumption and, last but not least, employment (the environmental factor was not examined this time) has been clearly confirmed. The role and significance of this group have also been exceedingly important since EU accession, particularly in the fields of horticulture and animal husbandry, and the strengthening of these positions is indisputably a national economic interest. -
POSITIVE EFFECTS OF CULTIVATION TECHNOLOGIES BASED ON GEOREFERENCED DATA ON THE ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY OF WINTER WHEAT PRODUCTION
Views:275Elements of precision farming, such as auto-steer navigation, section control and variable rate application, can have a positive impact on farming performance, yet the uptake of these technologies has been slow and farmers are not convinced that they can achieve ad- ditional benefits by switching to them. Therefore, the authors considered it important to examine the impact of precision farming on winter wheat yields based on data from Hungarian farms. Yield data from farms with a yield map in the MyJohnDeere database from 2018-2022 and yield and cost data from 48 farms with Variable Rate Application (VRA) from 2018-2022 were evaluated and compared to the national average. MyJohnDeere and VRA farms had significantly higher yields in all years. Despite the cost saving from the introduction of precision farming, such as non-overlapping input application, the total costs of the examined VRA farms were higher, which can be explained by more intensive production beyond precision farming. It can also be argued that the additional inputs of the VRA farms were outweighed by the additional production value, with their specific incomes being higher than the national average in all years. In conclusion, the profitability of winter wheat production - and thus its resilience to a changing economic environment - can be increased at farm scale by adapting preci- sion farming. Technological change by farmers, in particular the widespread adoption of variable rate application, could also increase the sustainability of winter wheat production at the farm scale.
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Exploitation of relations among the players of the mutton product cycle
129-134Views:391The continuous weakening of Hungarian sheep sector and its low effectiveness in terms of value added have posed crucial problems in recent years.The focal problem has been partially caused by economic and market problems.Among these issues, mostly the poor mutton supply chain gives rise to difficulties; therefore the present study seeks to reveal the factors/input variables which predominantly influence the generation of value added. We have constructed a model for the mutton product cycle to represent the relations of phases but mutton trade is not included.The most significant aim of our investigation was to identify the volume of value added generated during processing in various phases of the product cycle and the change of which inputs affected this volume. The received findings suggested that in case of capital uniformity the output of processing was mostly influenced by sheep progeny on the bottom level of the mutton product cycle.
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Tourism Development Challenges of an Island Destination in a Aging Society, Case Study of Ojika Island of Japan
31-38Views:488Japan’s inbound tourism numbers have been steadily rising in the past decade due to active promotion, easing of visa regulations, rapidly developing Asian economies and the depreciation of the Japanese Yen. The government’s goal is welcoming 40 million foreigners yearly by 2020, and leading them to rural destinations. There is a concern whether rural destinations in Japan are prepared for this sudden surge of tourists. The plans to bring masses to rural destinations implies a steady supply of tourism service, but the ageing and shrinking population of Japan together with the migration towards cities, leave some destinations without a key resource: workforce. This paper tries to understand the current situation of such rural, isolated communities, and whether they have the capacity to develop and expand the tourism industry. The case study was carried out on Ojika, an island destination in Nagasaki Prefecture. Several visits to the destination, participant observation and structured as well as unstructured interviews with stakeholders provide the primary data for the research. Through interviews with town officials, businesses and residents, different approaches to the demographic problems are introduced. The results show that the tourism development strategies cannot concentrate only on the strictly tourism industry elements of the destination but have to look at the community and infrastructure too, in this case, the labor market. The demographic change in society can put a limitation on development, thus counter measurements have to be considered and included in the tourism strategy. Further research is needed on less remote destinations, where there is a land-connection with another settlement, and whether a “commute based workforce” can ease the problem or by raising the costs of labour, a different, feasibility problem arises in the accommodations.
JEL Classification: Z32
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„Green” Public Relations (Public relations in the sector of products and services for Polish agriculture)
67-74Views:239The field of Public Relations has undoubtedly been assuming growing importance in Poland. Understood as an element of marketing communication or a function of company management, it has a significant impact on company’s external and internal environment. According to Puls Biznesu3 the value of the Polish PR market amounted to 250m PLN in 2005, which is a 20% increase as compared to 2004. According to the author Urszula S ´wiatl⁄owska, “the turnover of PR agencies is growing and even smaller companies demonstrate their interest in the services”. Considering this, it can be assumed that PR activities will soon be initiated by many smaller Polish companies, often connected with the agricultural sector. The change discussed by the authors of the article reflects the phenomenon of PR’s growing importance among other communication channels in Poland.
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Tourism, meditation, sustainability
81-91Views:429The economic value of meditation based services is clearly demonstrated by a growing number of companies using such services. In the USA one quarter of the companies offer in-house meditation training to their employees. On the otherhand,the number of those who think that the western consumption paradigm in its present form is unsustainable is also increasing. In addition to its business value, meditation and its most popular western form mindfulness is a practical tool that can catalyze a change in our world view and value system. A basic precondition for learning meditation techniques is to have an open, receptive, feminine attitude. As it is revealed in the present research, tourists poses a significantly elevated level of openness to new experience. This increased openness together with an upward trend for spiritual experiences can create a synergy for certain destinations, accommodation types, tourism locations to expand their service portfolio with meditation based services. While favourable physical and psychological effects of traditional tourism services fade within a few weeks, meditation is a portable tourism product which can be taken home and practiced regularly in a virtually cost-free way. By learning and practicing meditation the extremely poor physical and psychological condition of the Hungarian population could be improved in a preventive and cost-effective way. As the level of mindfulness is positively correlated with sustainable behaviour by offering meditation services tourism might take on a new level of significance in the battle for sustainability.
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Development of the European Union’s environmental policy and its measures for climate protection – a review
Views:505The negative impacts of human activities on the environment and nature can be felt worldwide. Thus there is a growing focus on measurements that keep sustainability in mind. As one of the main pioneers of environmental protection and sustainability efforts, these aspects are more and more prevalent in the current environmental policy of the European Union (EU). In this review article, the development of the environmental policy of the EU is presented. After listing the main milestones, the role of the EU in the area of environmental protection, the frameworks built around the goals and the roles of the institutions are discussed. Then – with an international detour – the details of the Paris Agreement about climate change and the state of the 20/20/20 commitments are summarised. In the remaining parts of the article, the focus is on the climate protection goals of the EU for the next three decades, the expected future directions, and the agenda of the von der Leyen Commission concerning climate protection. An important step and tool for achieving the goals set until 2050 is to incorporate climate and environmental protection elements to the 2021-2027 budget of the EU. In order to achieve the expected effects, it is crucial to develop the right tools of the environmental policy, to form a widespread cooperation, to raise awareness, and incentivise and support the innovative solutions in the sustainability area.
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Analysis of the producer price of Hungarian raw milk in international comparison
27-32Views:322Although the dairy market crisis eased in 2011, Hungarian dairy farmers still find it difficult to produce milk profitably. As a result of the crisis, many dairy farmers abandoned milk production or reduced the size of their dairy herds in 2009 and 2010. Today, many of farmers are also considering ceasing production, in spite of the fact that the global dairy industry is facing an upturn. A dairy farm can operate profitablyy in three ways: 1) if it can reach a relatively high level of producer price 2) if it can increase milk production per cow 3) if it can achieve a relatively low cost of production. In the present study, I primarily analyse the development of the Hungarian producer price of raw milk in international comparison. Next, I list those factors which directly or indirectly influence the producer price of raw milk. Finally, I examine the relationship among disposable income, milk consumption and milk price. Since the start of 2009, the dairy market has been confronted with a period of extraordinary law prices. After bottoming out, prices had begun to slowly stabilise during the second half of 2009. By the end of that summer, international prices had started to strengthen and the last quarter of 2009 was characterized by a steady rise in prices. The strong recovery in prices experienced after 2009 was triggered by increased demand, mainly from oil exporting countries, but also from China.
The price increase, however, reflected a significant increase in input costs in Hungary; the high level of feed prices and the unfavourable change in the macroeconomic environment must be stressed. The rising excise duty on diesel fuel and the VAT increase had a direct impact on Hungarian dairy farmers. These negative factors have increased the costs of the sector, narrowing the ability of those active in it to operate efficiently. -
The role of education, knowledge and human resources for the agricultural development in the perspective of new cap: an hypothesis of change in Basilicata
123-129Views:287The role of education, knowledge and human resources in the agribusiness becomes of primary importance for the development of agricultural sector and, more generally, of the territory. The main objective of the present paper is to verify the role of investment in human resources and, consequently, in services for the agricultural development for the dynamics of rural development, trade and international cooperation of agribusiness.After a literature review, the paper firstly analyses the characteristics of the Italian Region of Basilicata, selected for our empirical application, and secondly develops an econometric model to explain the relationship between the rural GDP and a set of economic variables and of network-education-social (NES) dummy variable. These NES is representative of social, educational and, network factors, describing the degree of openness of the region firm. As expected, the results show that farmers may act as engines for economic development when they are trained on the basis of the needs and requirements related to innovation and research, and they are assisted through new models of organization of agricultural services.
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Police organization in the Republic of Croatia – problems in decision making
99-102Views:249During the last few years of my police work I had a chance to speak and share opinion with my work associates about the police system in Croatia. My colleagues sometimes shared my opinion and sometimes they did not about the quality of police organization. Everyone’s conclusion was that some sort of change in the police organization has to be made; organization of the police must follow and embrace modern standards in organization and conduct. Almost each person had the same opinion about police management and decision making. Their opinion was that management is not efficient; decision making is based on chain of command and not on finding good solutions; members of the management team do not have education or creativity to be qualified managers; form is more important than the quality of work.
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Examination of enterpreneurship ecosystem in Debrecen from the direction of open innovation spaces
51-59Views:273Innovation is not just a technology, but it is rather a comprehensive vision of what the future should look like and which requires changes in many ambits. Innovation is driven by people’s needs, ambitions and dreams, and it is necessary that people at different positions in the society change the way they work and live. Innovation, as a result of human interactions, often fails because people do not understand each other, as they belong to different worlds which have their own languages and cultures. While innovation system-like thinking recognizes that the needs are a good mix of factors for innovation, it is hard to establish the perfect mix beforehand: innovation systems and policies need to be adaptive” (Klerkx, Mierlo & Leeuwis 2012). I tried to bring this complex vision to our future. The actuality of the topic is provided by the fact that we are in the period of the development of digital industrial revolution, on the peak of the technology innovations, slowly resulting in the revolutions of the machines. These technological innovations, trends, equipment or new technological achievements often make our work easier, or they may replace us, and will bring changes transforming the world with them. At present era, the availability and use of the relevant knowledge is essential. In Western Europe and in other more developed countries different spaces provide places for evolving various trends, applying the acquired knowledge, e.g. development of Silicon Valley, polices, clusters, co-workings. These innovative spaces may form a bridge for evolving a global, international or regional technology and knowledge transfer, sharing our knowledge and developing our competitiveness. They may be the engine of a “new world”. The entrepreneurship ecosystem in Debrecen was investigated regarding the presence of open innovation spaces. Though Debrecen has already had open innovation spaces, it does not have space operating as HUB. „HUB is a global platform, where people from all corners of the planet connect and engage in collaborative action to realize enterprising ideas for a better world” (HUB GMBH 2012). Furthermore, I studied the fact that why the creation of HUB in Debrecen is reasonable concerning every sector, and what characteristics this space may have. In order to analyze my hypotheses, I used questionnaires made by Delphi survey. During the process experts of this field were asked in two turns. Selecting the experts occurred on the basis of Helix model.
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