The situation of the employed in agriculture

Efficiency improvements result in reduced employment. Regarding the actual individual consumption per capital and the GDP per capita in the EU member states- Hungary is among the lasts. The main reason for this is the weak international competitive role. Competitiveness is one of the prerequisites for efficiency which requires skilled workforce. However, the unemployed from rural regions are generally low-skilled so their employment is not a viable option in the competitive industry or in the agricultural market. In Hungary, the educational attainment level of agricultural workers is significantly lower than the employment of any other section’s or the EU average. Agriculture cannot solve the employment problems of the rural population, it may only contributes modestly to the creation of new workplaces. GDP or gross domestic product is the sum of depreciation, wages and capital income. One of the main reasons of the low GDP per capita is the fact that the wages in Hungary are just a mere fraction of a Western European employee’s with the same performance. The share of agriculture has been steadily decreasing in employment and in the production of gross value added, where the average wage of agriculture is significantly lower than the average of the national economy. It also plays a role in lowering the contribution of agriculture to GDP than the proportion of active workers. This explains the higher of a worker’s level of education is, the chances they stay in the agriculture permanently is reducing significantly. The social recognition of agricultural activity can only be improved if the agricultural earnings or income of qualified young people reaches the average of the national economy

The importance of social capital in agriculture

The concept of social capital became known in the 1980’s as an immaterial resource in the society and it is also a popular area of sociological and economic researches nowadays. Bourdieu, Coleman, and Putnam created the fundamental conceptions of the social capital. Defining social capital as capital involves the philosophy of serving as a resource for the social network. Studies of the rapidly growing economy of East Asia always emphasize the importance of dense social networks. These networks, the unacceptable, the confidential, reduce the transaction costs, speed up the flow of information and innovation. Social capital and financial capital can be converted. The great economic developments in Hungarians in the last century are different from these causes. In Hungary, there is a very low level of cooperation as well as willingness to develop it. Among Western European countries the level of trust is lower than the average. This basic problem is closely related to the low level of trust and social capital in society as a whole. Partnerships and cooperations are essential nowadays as they can be beneficial to the whole society and economy. In addition, the farmers' eagerness to associate is also weak and the options on how to resolve this issue are still not settled. Enforcement of the Hungarian peasantry in agricultural cooperatives (1958-1962) left a profound impression on society and its consequences must be taken into account. The good reputation and the credit could be quickly lost; on the contrary recovery – especially rebuild mutual trust- takes more time. Hungarian farmers do not have the confidence to regain each other in the long run. It should be changed, otherwise the majority of the Hungarian farmers will not have the chance to stay competitive

The effects of afforestation programs in Heves County between 2007 and 2013

The forest is one of the most complex natural ecosystems that is one of the basic living conditions of the healthy human life due to its effects on the environment. According to their functions forests can fill security, economic, social, health, tourism, and education as well as research roles. After the end of World War I the level of forest cover decreased to 11.8% in Hungary. At this time Hungary was Europe’s fourth poorest country in forest and tree. The increasing of forest cover was an important objective in each areas since then. The location and the size of the afforested area ultimately will be appointed by the landowners’ intentions. The state can support the success of the afforestation program by various devices, and promote effectively the enforcement of public interest. The New Hungary Rural Development Programme (2007-2013) envisaged the deployment of 69,000 hectares of new forest, of which 70% were implemented. Under the measure support was granted for the first afforestation of areas withdrawn from agricultural cultivation. Despite the above average extent of forest covers in Heves County (24.5% in 2006), further opportunities were opened to increase the forest area. In afforestation terms the high priority regions includes the poor quality arable lands of feet of Mátra and Bükk mountains and the reclamation areas of Visonta open-cast lignite mine in Heves County. During the research, we worked on secondary databases with a view to examine how regional differences there are in within Heves County in the case of location of forest areas and implemented forest plantations. On the one hand we used the data of Forestry Directorate of the National Food Chain Safety Office, on the other hand we worked up the statistics of Agricultural and Rural Development Agency about afforestation subsidies supported in the framework of New Hungary Rural Development Programme (2007-2013). There are significant differences among the districts of Heves County regarding the extent of forest cover between upland and lowland areas. While Pétervására and Bélapátfalva districts were characterized by 61% and 59% forest cover in 2006, at the same time in Füzesabony, Heves and Hatvan districts the same value was slightly higher than 4%. In the period between 2006 and 2015 the rate of forestation increased in all districts of the County at least by 0.2 percent. The growth rate was more than one percent in  Heves megye járásai között az erdősültség mértékét illetően jelentős különbségek figyelhetők meg a hegyvidéki és alföldi területek között. Miközben a Pétervásárai járást és a Bélapátfalvai járást 61, illetve 59%-os erdősültség jellemezte, addig a Füzesabonyi, a Hevesi és a Hatvani járásban ez az érték alig haladta meg a 4%-ot. A megye minden egyes járásában növekedett az erdősültség mértéke a 2006 ás 2015 közötti időszakban legalább 0,2 százalékponttal. 1 százalékpont feletti volt a növekedés a Pétervásárai és a Gyöngyösi járásban. Ezáltal jelentős kiterjedésű, mezőgazdasági művelésre kevéssé alkalmas terület kapott új funkciót.Pétervására and Gyöngyös district. Therefore, a significant expanse of land that is less suitable for agricultural cultivation has given a new function

The role of National Agricultural Chamber's advisors in the life of farmers in Heves County

The Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture (HCA) was established in the spring of 2013 as a public body. The main tasks of the HCA are strengthening and advocacy of domestic agricultural and food sector, supporting the competitiveness of Hungarian food, furthermore the consultancy and delivering fast, accurate and reliable information to farmers. After the integration of village consultants’ network in 2014 the HCA established a unified support system for farmers. This system based on five pillars: information, consulting, training, project management and European Innovation Partnership. In Heves County 27 village consultants and 4 village consultant administrators perform advisory tasks coordinated by the chief village consultants. The scope of official duties performed by the network: crop estimation, data collection and reporting tasks associated with state rating, assessment of damages in agriculture etc. The advisors validate about 9500 farmers’ cards year by year. In our research we examined the main features of the village consultants and farmers receiving services (such as age, gender, level of education, professional experience, current scope of activities and contacts between the two groups). We hypothesized that the age and vocational qualifications of the farmers are determining the number of services used. To answer our research questions we were performed primary data collection in Heves County. We compiled two questionnaires, one for the farmers (N=150) and one for the village consultants (N=18). To answer the remaining outstanding issues we conducted interview-based survey involving 4 experts. In the course of the survey research for the village consultants we examined theirs most important activities and ranked by the number of mention. The five most common cases were the Unified Application Administration, the validation of farmers’ cards, information services in connection with former Agricultural and Rural Development Agency, monitoring data service and Chamber membership fee acknowledgment. The farmers we’ve asked were all familiar with the local village consultant and 88% of them known the office client’s time. The 69% of the respondents more than three times visited the advisor. Based on our research the village consultants completed more than 50% of administrative tasks of farmers in the 70% of cases. Overall, the village consultant network plays an important role in the life of the farmers regardless of age or level of education

Effect of elevated atmospheric CO2 level on the abiotic and biotic stress tolerance of cereals

Abstract Effect of elevated CO2 level (EC) was studied on the tolerance of cereals to elevated temperature and drought and on the resistance of wheat to fungal diseases. In general, elevated growth temperature did not affect final grain size, thus having less harmful effects than heat stress or drought during grain-filling. The plants subjected to low water supply levels or elevated temperature had higher biomass and grain yield at EC than at the ambient level. Susceptible wheat varieties were, however, usually more prone to diseases when grown at EC, while resistant varieties remained resistant even at EC

Study of yield components under heat stress conditions in wheat

High temperature tolerance can be characterised by measuring various plant productivity traits in different developmental stages. The present work investigated the effect of exposure to high temperature (30-35°C) at first node appearance, during early embryo development and in the grain-filling stage on the yield parameters of two winter wheat varieties. Periods of high temperature had diverse effects on wheat plants in different phenophases. The greatest differences between the various developmental stages were found for grain number, grain yield and thousand-kernel weight. Heat stress was demonstrated to have the least effect on total grain number and number of grains per spikelet on the main spike during the grain-filling period. The most pronounced reductions in the traits examined were detected when heat stress was applied during the early embryo development stage