Innovative agricultural businesses – elements of an efficient farm management

Innovation is one of the neo-factors with the greatest influence on building or enhancing a competitive advantage in all fields of activity, including the agricultural sector. Innovative agricultural businesses are the ones that ensure differentiation in relation to competition and are the main sources of added value in a dynamic economy. Innovation is one of the attributes of the entrepreneur. Business ideas that identify new products, new features or usage patterns as well as new market niches are tools that help ensuring successful management of the farms concerned. The paper aims to identify a series of innovative business ideas related to agricultural and agri-food activities, to provide examples of good practices associated with these businesses and to analyze the importance of innovation at European, national and local level. The study highlighted the direct correlation between innovation and performance, the Research and Development department of each enterprise gaining increasing importance related to the production department. Firms that did not adapt to the ever-changing environment and did not adopt differentiation strategies have involved or stagnated economically while companies that have come up with new products or presentation methods, new technologies and processing systems have considerably improved their economic results by becoming leaders in the segment targeted by them. Growing lavender, planting peanut, natural juice factories or cultivating and processing medicinal plants are some of the innovative businesses identified that have developed and brought to the entrepreneurs great results and to customers new products and services adapted to their needs

The influence of management activities regarding agricultural machines maintenance and repair on the overall farm economic efficiency

A particularly important role in the activity of farms is represented by the agricultural machinery and equipment used in production. In addition to a thorough selection and procurement process in accordance with existing needs, there is also a need for efficient management of maintenance and repair activities correlated with the technological specifications and the required work schedule. Although, on the whole, little attention is paid to this sector of the general business, possible malfunctions may lead to the impossibility of carrying out certain technological works and, consequently, to the deregulation of production plans and, subsequently, a possible negative impact on economic results. Management can be a decisive factor of production, in addition to the other factors that are given a higher importance, this field requiring more attention in terms of training the managers and implementing the principles of this science. The paper aims to highlight the importance and impact of efficient management of maintenance and repair of machinery on the economic results of agricultural farms starting from a general analysis and continuing with an analysis at the farm level, making a correlation between these activities and the economic results recorded. Maintenance and repairs within a company can be carried out, depending on the strategy approached, both by the farm employees, by an authorized service in partnership with the farm or can be carried out in a combined system. The effectiveness of the technological system is determined by the way of adapting to the characteristics of each farm. If the maintenance of agricultural equipment used in the production process is not carried out in time, regardless of the field, the activity cannot be realised in optimal conditions or there may be delays in accomplishing the task which may influence the process of organizing and coordinating activities and therefore optimal operation process is affected

The importance of crop structure optimization in agricultural management

Mathematical programming models and especially their subclasses - linear programming models - occupy a particularly important place, both in theory and in economic practice being used in various fields. Their application in agricultural management comes as a basis for decisions on the resources allocation or the assignation of a certain crop structure in terms of efficiency aiming at the economic optimum. The crop structure can also be optimized using other specific methods, the most known being the multiple variants method and the planning program. Model setting is conditioned by the use of electronic computing because the multitude of restrictions and the complexity of mathematical relationships cannot be solved without specific programs. The solutions obtained are variants that an agricultural farmer can use to achieve the objectives of the unit, being able to immediately see the effects of potential changes in the initially introduced parameters and act accordingly. Obtaining correct results is conditioned by the prior setting of limit values (minimum outputs, minimum or maximum areas required by certain natural, economic or managerial conditions, weights associated with different crops, etc.) the correct definition of the objective function in order to insure the correctness of the mathematical relationships representing the restrictions imposed and by faithfully scrutinizing the stages specific to the scientific approach in order to achieve the objectives proposed by the agricultural holding or the area concerned. The paper analyzes the importance of using the linear programming method in agricultural management and exemplifies by presenting a model for optimizing the structure of crops in the Iasi county, highlighting the advantages and limitations of this method as well as possible future research directions

Study regarding the dynamics of main quantitative and qualitative indicators for the agricultural sector in Iași

Knowing and updating the values of the main quantitative and qualitative indicators of the agricultural sector related to a certain area of interest allows for an overall vision and the generation of viable solutions by correlating the values resulted with the needs of the specific area (generating an increase in productive, assuring the consumption needs, environment protection, encouraging investment) as well as expressing current trends in a particular field. Changes regarding crop area, production on main crops and average yields, livestock by category, farm tractor and agricultural main agricultural machinery or the value of total agricultural output expressed graphically or tabularly reveal the neuralgic points (which require attention from the responsible factors) or the strengths indicating areas with development potential and favorable to investment. The management of the economic entities in the agricultural sector aims to make the specific activity more efficient and a significant precursor stage in this process is represented by the analysis of the specific indicators of the field in which the enterprise activates in order to find the best way to respond to the dynamics of the characteristic influence factors. The paper investigates the main quantitative and qualitative indicators of the agricultural sector in Iași County over the course of seven years, highlighting the current situation and the fluctuations registered with the impact on the entire economy of the analyzed area

The development and diversification of the rural economy by financing the tourism projects

By this paper we plan to reconsider the touristic values by multiple perspective - economic, social, ecological - given that at national level were implemented many projects in the tourism area, some of which are strategic and of very large amplitude, with significant impact on the economic development in the rural areas. To this end, we take into account the issue of the rural economy development through value awareness and highlighting the programs for financing the tourism projects in the last 10 years for the North-East Development Region. The research, theoretical-empirical, is based on thematic description, analysis and synthesis. It considers the basic indicators of the rural economy development for the analyzed region and it concludes about the progresses obtained towards the diversification of the rural economy and the tourism contribution to this progress. The main result of the paper is highlighted by a dashboard built on the basis of the indicators that allow the quantification of the progress obtained in the rural areas through the economic diversification determined by projects funded in tourism. A main conclusion of the study is that, undoubtedly, a tourism project is a notable determinant of the economic development, with multiplier effects beneficial to the rural environment where was implemented

Leasing as a financing method - a case study

The investment is one of the main vectors of growth economic performance to microeconomic and macroeconomic level. Their effectiveness is to determine the relationship between the economic effects they cause and the efforts required by this. At the same time, the investment opportunity is determined by their ability to be replaced external factors. The research methodology consisted in making a case study in a farm in the county of Vaslui. The results show that some investments in agriculture, although they can be considered effective, may be declared inopportune for the economic conditions

Reconsidering the marketing mix from the perspective of circular economy

Circular economy, a modern and current concept, represents a concrete solution to practically support sustainable development. Moreover, circular economy is considered as one of the most representative answers to the need to efficiently and sustainably manage the problem of resources and waste generated by the production and consumption processes. The current paper which is prevalently theoretical and empirical, aims to identify the existence and meaning of the relationship between marketing mix and circular economy, starting from the hypothesis that the traditional marketing mix needs an adjustment to the requirements of circular economy. In fact, we propose to reconsider the traditional marketing mix by adding a 5th component to the established 4Ps: product, price, promotion, placement. By means of the analysis and synthesis of the literature, correlated with the authors’ proposal, the new component added to the marketing mix is the ”return” and refers to the new sustainable and responsible way to use the waste resulted from consumption. Thus, the main outcome of the paper, the 5th component that is ”R”, is analysed and developed based on the specialty literature and of the studies that support circular econom

The financial frameworks of the European grants allocation and their impact on the Romanian agriculture and rural areas

In Romania there have been three financial frameworks of European grants allocation until today. These funds, conducted through multiple funding programs, are available in the past and present in the context of Romania’s accession to the European Union in 2007. The first financial framework was conducted from 2000 to 2006, the second from 2007 to 2013 and the third is currently running from 2014 until 2020. The grants of the funding programs intended for the agriculture sector and rural areas always have been a specific segment of the grants, contributing to Common Agricultural Policy implementation. They have had a significant impact on the development of both the rural areas in general and the agricultural production sector or the diversification non-agricultural activities in the rural areas. This paper examines the different features of the three financial frameworks. It also centralizes the specific impact of the funds on the different segments of agriculture and rural areas. As there it will be seen, each financial framework has some specific features that have been established according mainly to the previous one

The global assessment of the state of food security and progress towards achieving the hunger and food insecurity targets

This scientific approach presents an updated global assessment of food insecurity and nutrition for up to the year 2021 and a scientific approach on progress towards meeting SDG Targets 1 and 2 ending hunger and ensuring access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food for all people all year round and eradicating all forms of malnutrition. Despite hopes that the world would emerge more quickly from the crisis and food security would begin to recover from the pandemic in 2021, the pandemic held its grip and even tightened it in some parts of the world. The rebound of gross domestic product (GDP) growth observed in most countries in 2021 did not translate into gains in food security in the same year. Enormous challenges are still faced by those who continue to be the most affected: those with less wealth, lower and more unstable incomes and poorer access to critical basic services. Another crisis is unfolding as this scientific approach is being written with potentially sobering implications for global food security and nutrition: the war in Ukraine. Although the statistics presented in this scientific approach represent the state of food security and nutrition up until 2021, the direct and indirect effects of the conflict in 2022 will have multiple implications for global agricultural markets through the channels of trade, production and prices. Ultimately, this casts a shadow over the state of food security and nutrition for many countries, in particular those that are already facing hunger and food crisis situations, and poses an additional challenge for achieving the SDG 2 targets of ending hunger and ensuring access to adequate food for all (SDG Target 1) and of eliminating all forms of malnutrition (SDG Target 2)

The impact of common agricultural policy on farmers income in Romania

The paper proposes is to analyze the current situation and prospects of the Romanian agricultural and rural economy and to recommend actions to reduce potential risks of fully integration of Romanian agricultural economy in the rural economy of the European Union. This paper tries to provide an updated the agricultural diagnosis and rural development in Romania and assess the global implications on the rural economy diversification and create new jobs. The subject includes theoretical addressing agricultural management system and characteristics of the studied phenomena, directed and coordinated contemporary management. Recent research shows that changes in agriculture and rural development are reflected in the economic downturn, the occurrence of demographic problems (increased distances between work and home, low rural population), changes in social structure, refocusing on value systems, pressures arising ecosystems, destruction of cultural heritage areas, and reducing income disparity, changing habitat preferences (second homes in the village). Integrating agriculture into the market economy, technical and economic modernization is done with great difficulty due to various reasons: lack of capital and a well organized credit system, inadequate material resources, dependence on upstream prices due to high input sites industrial and agricultural nature, but also downstream, and following the disruption of agricultural contracting system