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Analysis of household crop commercialization in Nigeria
Views:514Nigeria 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
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THE PROFIT EFFICIENCY OF MORINGA OLEIFERA PRODUCTION IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA
Views:515This study examined the profit efficiency of Moringa oleifera production by farmers in Osun State, Nigeria. Primary data were obtained from 150 respondents. Multistage sampling procedure was used for selecting respondents. The data were analyzed with the aid of descriptive statistics, budgetary analysis and stochastic frontier production function. The findings revealed that male predominate moringa enterprise with about 55.3% male, most producers fall between the age bracket 41-50years with a mean age of 44.92 (± 13.168) years and the average farm size is 0.3 hectares whilst indicating that most producers had less than 0.1 hectares of land. Moringa production had a benefit cost ratio of ₦5.852, profit margin of ₦0.182, expense structure ratio of ₦0.107, net return on investment ₦4.857, rate of return of ₦5.482 and profitability ratio of ₦0.981. The average profit efficiency of moringa producers was 18.73% on the profit frontier. Family labour, hired labour and transport cost were significant and had positive coefficient while the seed cost, pesticide cost, level of education and farm size are also significant but bears negative coefficient. The level of education and farm size are amongst the inefficiency variables considered. This study concludes that Moringa oleifera production is highly profitable but producers have not been able to maximize profit efficiency. It therefore recommends that producers improve on adding value to moringa products and extend their channels of distribution considering the cost incurred on transportation.
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Measuring efficiency of intellectual capital in agriculture sector of Vojvodina
25-31Views:319During three-hundred-year history of the market economy, the main sources of wealth creation have changed from the natural resources (mainly land and relatively unskilled labor with the exception of the master craftsman), tangible material assets (buildings, machinery and equipment, funds) to intangible assets (knowledge and information of all types) that may be contained in the people, organizations, or physical resources. In the later period of the twentieth century, science has acquired the features of direct production force. The term direct implies that unlike the relationship which existed between science and production in the IXX century, where scientific advances was incorporated through the physical labor in the tools, which, in turn, created new value through the physical labor, the relationship between science and production has become all direct, immediate, because the scientific advances allowed the funds to be produced with less labor and allowed funds itself to become "smarter" and as such to require less human intervention and human physical labor in the final production process.As a result, the need for physical labor continuously declined with time, and the application of labor is moved from direct production to processes of preparing and organizing production. Also, a large part of today's knowledge that is used in production is not embodied in machinery, and the effects of this are immense.
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Farmers’ experience in adoption and usage of ICT solutions for agriculture in the Republic of Macedonia
25-30Views:491The adoption of new of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in farming activities becoming crucial for developing countries in order to meet the challenges of rapidly growing populations, urbanization and arable agricultural land declination. Because of it, each farmers’ organization or farmer has to concern their agricultural products and services more towards modernized and ICT related routine. The attempt has been made to analyze the reaction of the Macedonian farmers towards ICTs as a source of reliable and timely information about e-banking, online purchasing/selling, marketing, input and output optimization, increased revenue, remote farm management process etc. Semi-structured questionnaire was used for interviewing 132 semi-experienced and experienced farmers that use ICTs as sample for the research. The data were analyzed using appropriate statistics tool like correlation and Rank Based Quotient (RBQ). The findings showed that farmers stressed the cost of ICTs, lack of training, trust level in the government institutions, and lack of ICT infrastructure are thresholds for ICTs adoption and use in agriculture. This research contributes to understand the adoption and use of ICT, identify the constraints associated with ICT use and propose recommendations towards the improvement of ICTs for agriculture in the Republic of Macedonia.
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The choice between conventional and organic farming. A Hungarian example
55-58Views:339The paper deals with organic produce in one of the largest and, concerning organic production one of the most diffused counties in Hungary, Pest County located in the north-central part of the country. Factors influencing farmers’decision on adopting or not e.g. farm size, farm type, location, structure, market for organic products, existence of organic AEM were analysed. Hypotheses based on previous empirical literature were tested by a model explicitly accounting for the effects of farm-specific variables like age, education, size of farms and share of rented land. Logit model was estimated on a cross-section data set of Hungarian farmers for the period 2007. It appears that education has a positive impact on the choice between conventional and organic farming, and, the size of the farm in hectares has a negative effect on this choice.Age and some general considerations on environmental friendly technologies do not have a significant effect on choice between conventional and organic farming.
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The economic situation of Hungarian crop production enterprises, especially in Hajdú-Bihar county
Views:481Increasing the competitiveness of Hungarian crop production plays a key role in moving forward at the international level. However, improving efficiency and profitability is essential in this regard. The natural resources in Hungary provide an excellent opportunity for crop production. About 8% of the arable land in Hungary (a total of 4.3 million hectares) belongs to farmers in Hajdú-Bihar County. This research is based on secondary data that can be found in the HCSO and EMIS databases. HCSO data was used for the comparison of national and county data characterising crop production, while the EMIS database was used to process the financial data of enterprises dealing with field crop production. The Hungarian sample size is 853, of which 69 enterprises are from Hajdú-Bihar County. The aim of this study is to assess the profitability, assets and financial situation of arable crop production enterprises operating in Hajdú-Bihar County as a function of national average data. Based on the examined profitability indicators (operating ROS and ROA), it was established that the enterprises in Hajdú-Bihar County are profitable, even in a national context. In terms of operating ROS, the farms in the examined county were able to achieve a 3.6 percentage point higher value due to their more efficient cost management, despite having a similar level of technology compared to businesses spanning across the entire country. The proportion of farms with the lowest leverage ratio (<20%) is 16 percentage points higher at the county level than at the national level. In addition, almost 70% of the enterprises operating in Hajdú-Bihar County have excellent liquidity. This rate is 50% at the national level.
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The new strategic directions of rural development in Hungary
143-150Views:322The notion of sustainability is the basis for our future possibilities. Local sustainability, in the centre of which can be found the livable settlement, is especially important in rural areas.Without developing rural areas, there is no developing society. The growth of the Earth’s population and the world economy has already surpassed the carrying capacity of this planet which may result in an “overshoot and collapse”. This can still be prevented today. The population of towns and cities is rapidly increasing. Urbanization is a very fast process, even in Hungary. In large cities with millions of inhabitants crime and lumpen lifestyle pose huge problems. However, the bases of a successful economy are morals and a puritan lifestyle, which so far have characterized rural villages. 70% of the poor and needy live in rural areas in the developing countries and agriculture provides livelihood for 40% of the world’s population. The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) was established in 2002 by FAO and theWorld Bank to learn more about the role of agricultural science and technology. After the positive decision some comprehensive summaries were made on all the related topics with the participation of 400 scientists. The assessment provided many lessons to learn and at the 2008 closing sessions in Johannesburg, the reports were accepted and it was proved that rural areas have a significant role in providing adequate means of earning a livelihood. The Ministry of Rural Development composed a domestic-level study with the title of the National Rural Strategy. The objectives stated in the study can be seen as the main directions of the Hungarian rural strategy. The land policy aims to support the 50–70 hectare family farms and have the agricultural lands under national authority. The population must be provided with ample and safe food. The priority of local economy, local sale, and local markets is important. The positive exploitation of our natural resources may result in the strengthening of rural areas. The deterioration of rural areas must be stopped. In order to halt these processes swiftly fundamental, patriotic economic and social policy changes, a strong people’s party, a short-run crisis treating and a medium-long-run strategic development and action plan are needed which is based on the respect of work and moral norms, national cooperation, solidarity, and the defense of our mutual interests rather than on speculation (ÁNGYÁN, 2010). The greatest problem of Hungary is low employment.Workplaces may be created in the least expensive and the fastest manner in irrigational agriculture. In order to achieve this, the role of the state must be reconsidered and EU rules on state intervention must be reviewed.
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Agri-environmental management and rural development: Hungary after EU accession
35-40Views:281In Hungary, similarly to developed countries, the share of agriculture in the GDP has declined. Even so, preparation of the sector’s long term strategy is crucial, as the role of agriculture exceeds the results represented in the GDP. Environmental and social functions of agriculture are revaluated in developed countries, and consumers at the end of the food chain actually govern the entire process. This is why information plays an increasingly important role, and gives signals (Verbeke, 2005) to the actors in the economy and society. This research area is diverse (including agricultural policy, environmental policy, rural development and sustainable development), and so I applied an interdisciplinary approach and conducted an integrated examination. The results show that in recent decades, the pressure of agriculture on the environment has been lower in Hungary than in the EU-15 and agri-environmental measures have taken hold in all types of land-use systems, even though they are more important in protected areas. Although this development provides a good basis for a long term strategy social capital has lost strength (Csath, 2002), so fostering the creation of internal and external rural networks – one instrument for this could be the Leader programme – is essential for sustainable rural development.
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OPERATING RESULTS OF SILAGE ENTERPRISE OF A FARM - A CASE STUDY
Views:447Improvements in agriculture has been focusing on innovations to improve the efficiency of the activity by making the traditional production structure currently in use more flexible and by making the necessary technological changes for farmers with large areas and the necessary machinery and equipment. Farms with significant arable land are able to offset the effects of changes affecting efficiency and profitability. The decisive sector of agriculture in Hungary is crop production, therefore its performance is largely determined by the annual output of the crop sector and the volatility in prices. From the farm data, we calculated farm-level results that support the need for machinery modernisation efforts, as precision tools and improvements already started in maize production can be applied fruitfully even in the light of the increasing frequency of negative climatic effects. During the development of silage maize cultivation technology, the achievements of precision farming were applied. Differentiated nutrient replenishment and sowing operations were used, in addition to the fact that harvesting was also documented. We set ourselves the goal of analyzing the management data of the study period between 2019-2022 in order to reveal the nature of the changes that occurred in terms of production value, production cost, and income, as well as the components that shape them. The presented values are average values of such conditions which are also suitable for crop-level conclusions. At the same time, they can be used to identify sector-level challenges and trends.
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The climate change and agriculture – dimensions and correlations
33-38Views:280Global climate changes are taking place and its impacts on economy are already occurring in fields like tourism, agriculture, forestry, infrastructure, insurance industry or capital market. Specialists draw attention that climate change has negative effects and positive effects. For example, in some parts of Europe, especially in north, the agricultural may benefit from temperature rise increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The most important part of these changes is due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activity. Between greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) is the largest contributor with a weight around of 80% of total GHG emissions. The agriculture is the most affected sector by the climate change, but agricultural activities have many negative implications on environment through emissions of methane and nitrous oxide that result from changes in land use. Besides the negative impact, the agriculture may play a positive role to environment protection through the production of bio fuels. Because of the huge implications of climate change on human activities, the public authorities have made important steps in order to control this phenomenon, to reduce and prevent the negative impact.
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A study on consumer habits in the dietary supplements market
5-12Views:1393There has been a continuous increase in the proportion of consumers using dietary supplements worldwide. Evidence based on former surveys suggests that in Hungary more than half of the population buy at least one type of dietary supplement (hereinafter DS). By using secondary research, the authors of the present paper examine the demographic factors determining the consumption of DS on a global scale. Consumption of DS increases with age and is more frequent among women. Consumers with higher qualifications and income tend to buy products containing vitamins and minerals to a greater degree. In the vast majority of cases the purchase and consumption of DS is based on consumers’ personal preferences and decisions, rather than on their physicians’ advice. It has been found that a high percentage of DS consumers probably do not even need any extra nutrient intake. In our primary research (N=1000) the specific attitudes to and characteristics of DS consumption among Hungarian adults are analysed on the basis of on a nationally representative survey. First, we identify the most important reasons which encourage consumers to buy DS. Consumer awareness concerning DS with a particular vitamin and mineral content and of other sources is examined, and we also assess the consumption of the product which is the most popular. The current paper attempts to identify the outlets Hungarian consumers typically buy DS from, and also what resources they use to keep themselves informed about these products. Consumers who admittedly reported (regular) consumption of a certain kind of DS product 6 months prior to the survey are further examined in relation to certain additional issues. The results of our survey provide an accurate picture of the DS consumption habits of the Hungarian population.
JEL CODE: I12, M31
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Agricultural development and government expenditures in the new EU countries
21-35Views:373The main ambition of this paper is to analyse agricultural developments in selected new EU member states with particular emphasis on government expenditures in agriculture. The main objective is to identify the relationship between government expenditures development on one side, and agrarian sector performance (the value of production) in selected member states on the other. The conclusions drawn from this analysis are that the agricultural sector has changed its structure and position within the national economy of selected new EU member states significantly in the 20 years since the early 1990s. Member states included in the analysis reduced both the size of their agricultural sector (number of people working in agriculture, total arable areas, number of animals, etc.), and the value of agricultural output. Despite the significant reduction of the agricultural output, member states became more efficient – and in particular their productivity per farmer increased significantly. Selected country’s agricultural sector, its structure and production value development are closely related to government expenditures. Significant correlation is apparent between agricultural government expenditures and the change in the number of economically active persons in agriculture, development of agricultural production, agricultural area, agricultural GDP and agricultural capital stock. Regarding the elasticity of new EU member states’ agricultural sector in relation to changes in government expenditures, significant elasticity is apparent in the case of the number of economically active persons in agriculture, agricultural production (especially livestock production), area of arable land, agricultural GDP and capital stock.
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