Search
Search Results
-
Poultry sector analysis in Albania
Views:673Meat production, in specific poultry meat is a very important product for protein and nutrition values for many consumers. With the urbanization of the population people’s diet is shifting towards meat overall, including processed poultry. This has increased the challenges of quality and control over the meat products. (RAIHAN AND MAHMUD, 2018) In general, poultry remains a problematic sector in Albania, with the most common issue being the quality and not the European Union standards and regulations. This paper analysis the egg and poultry products livestock and productions, importing and exporting trends on poultry products, and the potential of development of this sector in the single market of European Union by improving the sector. This study gives an overview in poultry subsector related to livestock and production, international trades, and their market trends. It highlights the supply chain in poultry that can be helpful for poultry businesses and government. It also provides valuable information regarding the impact of quality issues in international market, also the structure of the market for poultry is conducted. Also, the imports and exports on poultry subsector trends and comparison was conducted. The study also consisted of calculations of index number CPI, which indicates the changes in consumer purchasing power.
JEL code: D1
-
Methodological questions of a survey of civil organizations
95-98Views:322Today, the non-profit sector, and especially the role of civil organizations, has become significant in society. In Hungary there has been a large development in the past 20 years, in the non-profit sector, as the number of such organizations has quadrupled. The number of classic civil organizations (foundations and associations) makes up more than 80% of the non-profit sector. The social attendance, economic significance and affect often raise the issue of the true intensity of the sphere and also the question of why there are such vast differences between the conditions of function, human resources and how successful they are. For years now, with management related examination, we have been searching for the answers to the above questions, within the confines of the functional aspect research program of the Institute of Management and Organization in University of Debrecen, Centre for Agricultural and Applied Economic Sciences, Faculty of Applied Economics and Rural Development. Above all, we made an attempt to find general, management- related results and answers, with the use of probability sampling, a low number of samples and surveying.
In the selection process of organizations to include in our research, we relied on the data base of the Court of Hajdú-Bihar County and with K-aspect systematic sampling, and we also questioned more than 140 managers from different organizations. With this research, we acquired a diverse collection of information, which now we intend to summarize within this article. With this article, we aim to find out how realistic a picture the database of the Court gives regarding the civil activity of the county. Even the sampling was not trouble free, since the entire database is not accessible.
The survey also revealed some problems that confirmed the statement of the Central Statistic Office (KSH), i.e. that some organizations either do not function at all or function in name only. -
The operation of the Hungarian broiler product chain
47-50Views:373The general objective of this paper is to present the inner connections of the broiler product chain and the process of value generation in the economic situation of 2007. I introduce the input-output model of the broiler product chain adapted from macro-economic analysis, in which I calculated the direct connections of the product chain phases and between the national economic branches outside the chain. Then I point to the disproportion of the product chain through the profit distribution. Moreover, to evaluate the process of the value generation I demonstrate the value added generated along the value chain (year 2007). On the basis of the results 825 EUR of value added is realized to one ton of ready product (chicken meat), from which the major portion is shared by processing. The paper also determines the added value and the major factors influencing its ratio within the product chain.
-
The connection between academic and athletic performance among elite university student athletes
19-26Views:768Athletes in higher education are not only expected to produce high level performance but to find the balance between the preparation for post-athletic life and the requirements of the university. The objective of this study is to explore the connections between academic performance and level of sport. Also, to elaborate on the role of relevant policy regulations and institutional support that help elite athletes meet academic requirements. Data collection was conducted by means of online questionnaires involving athletes receiving sport scholarships at the University of Debrecen (N=159). The data from questionnaires were processed by using SPSS 18. Version software. For data analyse four groups were extracted based on level of sport performance and involvement: international elite, division I, division II, division III. The results indicate that the academic performance on the two international elite of sport did not differ from the average, and that these athletes did not experience any difficulties earning course credits at the university while being engaged in doing sport. In most cases, elite athletes did not apply for the various kind of support instruments, thus, they are able to balance athletic preparation and academic requirements without supportive modifications of university policies. The results also shed light on the fact that the academic performance does not only depend on the level of sport and the chosen major at the university, but it is also influenced by the time devoted to study and training, and the sport type (individual or team sport). There are differences observed between athletes participating in individual or team sport concerning the general average of grades, the effectiveness of earning credits, the number of weekly training, as well as the time devoted to training in preparatory and competitive periods. According to the results, the various amount of time devoted to study or sport does not necessarily result in academic performance decline. In addition, results support that athletes do keep academic studies rather important and they are aware that university years are considered to be a significant period in preparation for post-athletic life.
JEL code: Z20
-
SOCIO‑ECONOMIC DRIVERS AND INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES OF TOBACCO CONTRACT FARMING PARTICIPATION IN SVOSVE COMMUNAL AREA, ZIMBABWE
Views:49Tobacco remains Zimbabwe's Leading agricultural export crop, increasingly produced under contract farming arrangements. While contract farming offers inputs, technical assistance and assured markets, concerns persist that benefits are skewed towards merchancts rather than smallholder farmers. This study investigates the determinants of smallholder participation in tobacco contract farming in ward 22, Svosve communal area, Marondera District, Mashonaland East Province. Guided by the New Institutional Economics(NIE) theory, which emphasises the role of institutions in reducing transaction cost under market imperfections, a mixed methods approach was employed. Quantitative data were from 246 communal tobacco farmers using qestionnaires, while qualitative insights were gathered from 10 key informant interviews with agricultural business advisory officers(ABAO), tobacco merchants and farmer leaders. Multistage sampling was used select 5 villages;Mere 1, Mere 2, Mere 3, Neshamba and Bonda. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression in SPSS version 25. The statistics revealed that contracted farmers had higher education levels(10 years), larger landholding(mean 2.1 hacters) and greater access to irrigation(65%) than their counterparts. The regression model was statistically significant (F = 24.73, p < 0.001) with a strong explanatory power (R² = 0.68; Adjusted R² = 0.65). Results showed that landholding size (β = 0.62) and years in contract farming (β = 0.45) were the strongest positive predictors of participation, followed by irrigation access (β = 0.38), household income (β = 0.31), and education level (β = 0.29). In contrast, multiple income sources (β = -0.27) and years in general agriculture (β = -0.27) negatively influenced participation, indicating that diversified and highly experienced farmers were less inclined to join contracts. The discussion highlighted that resource endowments and institutional support drive participation, while lack of collateral and financial literacy hinder broader inclusion. The study concludes that contract farming remains a viable pathway for smallholder integration into value chains but requires reforms to ensure equitable benefits. Policy implications emphasize collateral support, farmer training, and resource provision particularly land development and irrigation infrastructure to enhance participation and productivity among smallholder farmers.
-
On tests for long memory process behavior of international tourism market: Thailand and India
95-99Views:430In our research we examine the behaviour of both Thailand’s and India’s international tourism market by using long-memory analysis. The international tourism market of Thailand combined with seven groups such as East Asia, Europe, The Americas, South Asia, Oceania, Middle East and Africa. Similarly, the international tourism market of India combined with nine countries: USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Malaysia, Australia and Sri Lanka. Moreover, three statistical tests for long-memory process such as R/S test, Modified R/S test and GPH-test are employed to study these markets. The empirical findings in general provide more support for long memory process in international tourism market of Thailand and evidence for short-term dependence in international tourism market of India. Therefore, the policy makers of each country should understand the behaviour of long memory process in international tourism market before launching any stimulating campaign to this industry.
-
Economic Performances of German Agri-Food Businesses: an Extension of Existing Discourses on the Topic
67-80Views:448Considering the circumstance that literature dealing with the economic performance of agri-food businesses in general, or particularly with the German agricultural sector, mainly deals with strictly agricultural-related theory in order to explain the economic success of agri-food businesses, the present paper aims to extend existing discourses to further areas of thought. Consequently, the characteristics: a) increased size of agribusiness, b) pull-strategies, c) the development of new markets and d) focus on the processing industry, that all correspond to the current picture of the German agricultural sector and are considered to be significantly responsible for recently managing to outpace the French agri-food sector, will be first explained in their success against the background of mainly non-agricultural-related literature. By doing so helpful and rather unnoted perspectives can be contributed to existing discourses. Second, the paper presents scatter plots which portray correlations between a) the added value of agriculture and the regular labor force, b) the added value of agriculture and the number of agricultural holdings and c) the added value of agriculture and the number of enterprises concerning milk consumption. Corresponding scatter plots which show different developments in Germany and France can be related to the findings of the first part of the paper and allow new perspectives in existing discourses as well.
JEL Classification: Q10
-
The influence of employment modes on employee turnover and agri-business performance: a case for Hunyani farm in the Zvimba district, Zimbabwe
17-27Views:499The labour intensive nature of Zimbabwean agriculture demands that farmers meet excessive labour requirements, at the same time keeping labour costs as low as possible to guarantee profits and achieve maximum business performance. This study, carried through a questionnaire survey, at the Hunyani Matura Farm, in the Zvimba district of Zimbabwe between from October 2017 to March 2018, investigated the effect of employment mode on turnover and agri-business performance. Data collected from the participants, was compared with the information from secondary source documents. From the results temporary workers performed better than permanent workers and they cited problems of low wages, poor working conditions, high work targets, inequality in work allocation, job insecurity and constant shuffling. Temporary workers had higher turnover and turnover intentions than permanent workers. Temporary employment mode had a positive
effect on agri-business performance. This study recommends the use of permanent employment mode on key positions like forepersons, stores persons and supervisors, and temporary employment mode on general farm tasks, while seasonal contracts were seen good for skill demanding operations such as tobacco seedbed establishment, tobacco reaping and curing and grading. A ccareful selection of employment modes reduces inequalities and unhealthy attitudes at work and improves on farm business performance.JEL Classification: Q12
-
Safety culture measurements results in the agricultural sector
143-150Views:287The author examined the safety culture and in relation to that the safety and health-related human factors. The examination was conducted primarily in the agricultural sector. Safety culture is also a key factor in business life especially in productive sectors. Basically, it determines the general work safety and occupational hazard situations, which may have an impact on business, competitiveness, and efficiency, and also employee satisfaction.The concept of safety culture is new in the applied sciences. Scientific investigations of safety culture are diverse, varying by country, science background and economic sphere. The author has created a dimension-model, which organically reflects the relations of safety culture within an organization, projected mainly on conditions in Hungary. Some safety culture dimensions have been also examined on the basis of international safety culture research methodology. The author investigated some safety culture dimensions on the basis of international safety culture research methodology. This method is suitable to investigate the status of the relevant safety culture dimensions at agricultural organizations. It has possibilities, in the course of safety culture operationalization, to mark out dimensions which as elements of organization culture are suitable for denotation of safety culture. In this paper the author publishes some of his results about the examined 18 agricultural enterprises. The author used a self-made questionnaire for the interviews. In the questionnaire he used Likert-type scale to measure the qualitative elements of the dimensions.
-
The understanding of international tourism development
61-62Views:270Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. Tourism has become one of the major players in international commerce, and represents at the same time one of the main income sources for many developing countries. This growth goes hand in hand with an increasing diversification and competition among destinations (Unwto, 2010).Working and serving in this pumping industry means to understand and react to the needs of all these people moving around this “small” planet! Success is defined by those who understand these needs and fulfill them to the satisfaction. Unfortunately, our industry is rather slow and we can be characterized as reactive instead of innovative.We adapt too slow compared to other industries that define the needs of their costumers before the costumers actually calls for it!
-
Analysis of household crop commercialization in Nigeria
Views:572Nigeria is experiencing a gradual shift from subsistence to commercialized agriculture, thereby increasing involvement and activities at different nodes of agribusiness. Participation of farmers in markets is an important determinant of well-being and development, and one of the pathways towards economic growth. This study analysed household crop commercialization in Nigeria. The secondary data used were the General Household Survey (GHS, 2018) Wave 4. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, household crop commercialization index (HCCI) and ordered probit regression model.
Mean age of Nigerian farmers was 50.04 years (±15.22), majority (85.68%) were male, married (82.51%), and 72.14% had formal education. Farming is viable in all the geopolitical zones and majority (87.64%) of the farmers were from the rural sector, holding a mean total plot size of 12.61(±15.63) hectares, and planted 3 crops on the average. The most produced crop categories are cereals (46.75%), tubers (20.70%) and legumes (19.00%); legumes and cereals are highest in the North, and tubers in the South. Subsistence households were 32.81% (HCCI=0), only 1.71% of the households were fully commercial (HCCI=100), while semi-subsistence households (0≤HCCI≤100) constitute 65.48%. Years of education (p<0.05) and crop production in North East and North West zones (p<0.01) constrain commercialization, while at p<0.01, crop production in the rural sector and the South zones, and increased land holding are the drivers of household crop commercialization in Nigeria.
Nigerian farming households are mainly semi-subsistence and are diversified in crop production. Nigeria relies more on market participation of the semi-subsistence households, through their marketable surplus, to feed her teeming population and for exports. Further attention on rural infrastructure development in all geopolitical zones and awareness creation on producing market oriented products will increase agribusiness activities. This will generate green decent jobs that will take unemployed youths off the streets of urban centres. This is in tune with the economy diversification bid and the new Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
JEL CODE – Q13
-
A comparison of the Hungarian mangalitza and dutch organic pork chains
73-76Views:340The aim of this paper is to present the Hungarian mangalitza pig and Dutch organic pig supply chains and, in interrogating the differences between the two sectors, to make suggestions for the efficient operation of the Hungarian mangalitza breeding sector. The information about the two was sourced by a depth interview and literature reviews. It is established that there are few similarities between the two segments. In both sectors, the pigs are kept outdoors in large paddocks, there are also National Associations: in Hungary, the Association of Mangalitza Breeders (NAMB), in The Netherlands, the Organic Pork Growers. They hold a general meeting every year, where they discuss issues such as volume, quality, price, marketing and the future challenges and opportunities. There is strong demand both for the mangalitza and also for Dutch organic pork products on foreign markets. The main difference between them is their information systems. In The Netherlands, information flows via FarmingNet, but in the mangalitza sector, no such system exists. Yet, such a system would represent a breaking point for the adequate flow of data and efficient production for the NAMB, because then, Hungarian farmers would be forced to supply data.
-
Effect of uncertainty on farmers decision making: Case of animal manure use
7-13Views:341Due to the high levels of manure application and the poor use efficiency of manure, the European agriculture is held responsible for a considerable negative impact on surface water quality (Langeveld et al., 2007). This problem has emerged particularly in Western-European countries such as the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands and Denmark, facing a large expansion and intensification process in the livestock production since the 1960s (Van der Straeten et al., 2008). Policy measures related to the application of manure on the land encompass two major measures: emission rights, understood as the amount of nutrients which can be applied on the land, differentiated by crop and the N spreading calendars, whereby the manure can only be applied when the crop needs nutrients. The fundamental aim of this pillar is to maximising application rate while avoiding overfertilisation. Maximizing the application rate is related to the economic sustainability of the agricultural sector, by altering the manure surplus, while avoiding overfertilisation is imperative in enhancing ecological sustainability, by preventing nitrate leaching to surface and soil waters. For nitrate policy to meet its target, the farmers should not exceed their emission rights, however make optimal use of their emission right for manure. Consequently, the successful implementation of sink-related measures will strongly depend of the absorptive capacity of farmers towards new ways of nutrient management in general and of animal manures in particular.
-
Enhancing the effectiveness of thermal water consumption via heat pumping
53-58Views:355Renewable technologies and the extension of their scope of usage basically has to face the general obstacles like any other novelties newly introduced to the market. In the case of environmentally friendly and clean technologies we must consider another critical aspect: the knowledge and the trust of the potential future users. To influence these people first we must extend their knowledge regarding renewable energies so they will be able to change their own approach about them. Usually the most crucial factor is the economic efficiency which determines the attitude of the majority of the users. Even the ones whose decision making process is highly based on the environmental patterns. In the case of any technology, the economic aspect is significantly influenced by its operational effectiveness. So this analysis – besides the direct economic matters – aims to examine how the performance of thermal water heating in greenhouses can be improved by using heat pumping.
JEL classification: Q42
-
LAND CONTROL AND POVERTY STATUS OF FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN NIGERIA
Views:392Poverty is pervasive among the majority of farming households in Nigeria, particularly affecting small-scale farmers. Having gained access to land, control over the land held is very important in improving the quality of life as it plays a vital role in poverty reduction among small scale farmers. This study examined the relationship between land control and poverty status of farming households in Nigeria. The Nigeria General Household Survey (GHS) 2018 was used. Analytical tools used include descriptive statistics, Land Control Index (LCI), Ordered probit regression and Logit regression models. From the results, majority of the Nigerian farmers were male (84.6%) with a mean age of 50±15years, and 81.1% were married, having a mean household size of 7±4 persons. The mean farm size held by the households was 4.42±14.9ha. Farming households had access to the highest proportion (62.79%) of their plots by inheritance, still showing the dominance of inheritance as a means of land access in Nigeria. Also, households had access to 11.80% of the plots by outright purchase, 11.20% by rent in cash or kind (farm produce), and 0.64% by sharecropping; these underscore the growing rural land market in Nigeria. Majority (88.8%) of the households had no control over all the plots of farmlands held (LCI=0) while 6.03% had total control of the plots of farmlands held (LCI=1). This implies that majority can only carry out farming activities (having use right) on the farmland and did not possess legal documents for the land (not able to dispose of the land). The mean household expenditure on food and non-food were ₦8,609.37 and ₦12,587.08, respectively. The mean total expenditure was ₦18,809.20(±10444.45) and the poverty line was ₦8,433.34. The poverty incidence was 41.03%; 41.03% were poor while 58.97% were non-poor. Location of household in the rural sector, especially in the North East, South West, and South East, was significantly positive in determining the level of land control by farming households at 1%. At 10% level of significance, low land control (HCI≤0.25) and medium land control (HCI=0.51-0.75) would significantly increase the likelihood of the household being non-poor by 27.4% and 33.6%, respectively. Land control positively influences the poverty status of the farming households in Nigeria; farming households with low land control can increase their chances of being non-poor. Rural farmers should be encouraged to obtain legal documents on their land to facilitate higher level of control.
-
The understanding of international tourism development
53-54Views:308Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. Tourism has become one of the major players in international commerce, and represents at the same time one of the main income sources for many developing countries. This growth goes hand in hand with an increasing diversification and competition among destinations (Unwto, 2010).Working and serving in this pumping industry means to understand and react to the needs of all these people moving around this “small” planet! Success is defined by those who understand these needs and fulfill them to the satisfaction. Unfortunately, our industry is rather slow and we can be characterized as reactive instead of innovative.We adapt too slow compared to other industries that define the needs of their costumers before the costumers actually calls for it!
-
Integration Efforts in Agriculture
91-96Views:344The economic and political transition brought many challenges for the Hungarian agricultural sector. The break-up of large agricultural holdings had serious negative impacts on food production and on the export of agricultural products. Capital intensive profit-seeking intermediaries dominate the trading of agricultural goods that has injurious effects in terms of downward pressure on production prices and an increase in consumer prices. Cooperatives have a key role in effectively tackling the common challenges that small-scale producers have to face. More vertical integration along the food chain could contribute to providing rural employment and to an increase in living standards in rural areas. This study reviews the development, the specific features and the driving forces of modern cooperatives in Central Europe in general, and in Hungary in particular. The focus is on the integrator role of cooperatives and their future role in our globalised world.
JEL Classification: Q10, Q13
Keywords
