2013 – Volume 115

In Hungary, the rates of direct payments to farmers under the Common Agricultural Policy for the period 2014-2020, the distribution of these payments, and ultimately their impacts on farming decisions, will depend on the combination of mandatory and optional Pillar I support schemes to be introduced in 2015. This paper presents estimations of the structural impact of six new support policy option mixes (scenarios) compared to 2013 (baseline), and discusses the policy implications in terms of the degressivity of direct payments versus the possible introduction of the Redistributive Payment in particular. The calculations of direct payment rates and the distribution of these payments were based on the database of the Hungarian Agricultural and Rural Development Agency for 2011, and the moving averages of the descriptive parameters of farms were obtained from the Farm Accountancy Data Network. To assess the structural impacts an agent-based simulation model was developed. Decisions were modelled at the micro-level and macro-outcomes were modelled as the consequences of these micro-level decisions. From an economic point of view, the Redistributive Payment would have no real advantage over the reduction of direct payments in Hungary as the Redistributive Payment would benefit only farms of relatively small size and would...

The article analyses the problems of the determination of the fair value of a multifunctional family farm using the method of discounted cash flow, presents a model of determination of the fair value of a multifunctional family farm and tests it for a selected family farm. The specificity of the cash flows in a multifunctional family farm is related to the cash flows from financial support, different value drivers of the earnings before interests and tax and their calculation methodology, and the value of created public goods and externalities. Two types of discount rates are used to determine the value of a family farm: marketbased and social discount rate (SDR). It is appropriate to use the SDR to discount the cash flow of investment, the economic and social benefits whereof are distributed among present and future generations. The stages of the determination of the fair value of a farmer’s farm include: value drivers’ decomposition; differentiation of cash flow and discount rates and measuring value drivers; forecasting cash flow and discount rate value drivers; value drivers’ composition; determination of the terminal value; and cash flow discounting.

Using the stochastic kernel, we analyse the Hungarian convergence path before and after accession to the European Union (EU), within its NUTS 3 regions (counties), and between those of the eastern EU Member States. Then, we develop a convergence analysis of GDP per capita PPS (Purchasing Power Parity) conditioned to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funds, in order to understand the role of the introduction of the CAP in the convergence of Hungarian rural areas. We find increasing divergence both within Hungarian NUTS 3 regions and between the eastern EU MS NUTS 3 regions, especially after Hungary joined the EU; a limited contribution of the CAP to the catching up of rural areas; and persisting difficulties of working with lacking rural disaggregated statistics.

Public perceptions of plant genetic engineering are of increasing research interest. Although within the current debate on the cultivation of genetically modified plants many related ethical, political and economic issues need specific consideration, young students’ views on this socio-scientific issue are largely unexplored. Therefore, our current analysis focussed on perceptions of Bavarian tenth graders (N = 572) with regard to their hopes and fears in the context of plant genetic engineering. By applying a mixed-methods approach, students rated their individual hopes and fears on a 4-point Likert scale (quantitative part) and gave a written statement about their individual associations (qualitative part): Hereby, hopes scored much higher than fears (medium effect). The subsequent categorisation of qualitative data resulted in five categories for hopes and four categories for fears. Hopes were mainly associated with economic or ecological aspects as well as with the overall fight against world hunger. Fears dealt mainly with negative consequences on human health and the fate of the environment. Additionally, subjective and objective knowledge were analysed for their influence on students’ perceptions. Subjective knowledge had a significant influence on hopes, objective knowledge did not. This background information is relevant for the age-appropriate preparation of biology lessons: Hopes and...

The main purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the export growth trends in the Hungarian agri-food sector over the last decade and to identify the obstacles hindering the sector’s development. We used constant market share analysis to break down into components the changes in export growth. Almost without exception, the increasing market size accounted for most of the export growth to 14 countries. The commodity (market composition) and competitiveness effects produced varied results and were not so positive. This shows that the Hungarian export structure was less adaptive to changes in demand in the target export markets. There were positive examples however, such as Italy and Slovakia, where the competitiveness effect explained 82 and 64 per cent respectively of the Hungarian export growth. In Romania almost one third of the total Hungarian agri-food export growth was explained by the improved competitiveness. The negative examples are numerous; the most important is the trade relations with Poland where the competitiveness effect almost halved the measured export growth potential. By analysing the price and quality competitiveness of the cereal and oilseed commodities with unit value calculations we could show that the market position of these relatively lower-priced products could...

This paper attempts to explain the terms of trade adjustment and the process of capital accumulation in a monetary model of sectoral interlinkage under rational expectation. The paper utilises a very standard dual economy framework in which industry and agriculture are two distinct sectors of production. Agriculture production is supply constrained. This may arise due to fixed endowment of land, weather condition etc. On the other hand, employment and output in the industrial sector are determined on the basis of profit maximisation in the presence of wage indexation. The asset structure of the economy includes the stock of primary commodities as one form of asset holding. Since the stock of agricultural commodities is one of the financial assets, its demand is subject to speculation which may entail fluctuating agricultural prices. Many factors have effects on fluctuating agricultural prices. These include monetary shock, parametric changes in agricultural production, changes in government expenditure etc. In this paper we discuss the comparative static effects of parametric changes of these factors. The paper shows that the short run and long run effects of any particular shock are quite different, not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively. Accordingly, the policy message of the paper is that...

India has witnessed fairly high economic growth since economic liberalisation started in 1991. However, agriculture has remained excluded from the growth experienced in other economic sectors. This growth paradox has serious implications for the agricultural land use pattern. This study uses the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis to examine the impact of agricultural technology and economic development on agricultural land expansion in India. Panel data regression is performed on an unbalanced sample covering information from 25 Indian states for the period 1990 to 2008. Our results suggest a nonlinear (N shaped) relationship between agricultural land expansion and Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) per capita. Two incomes turning points, showing the level of NSDP per capita at which inflection between agricultural land expansion and NSDP per capita takes place, occur at INR 20986.14 and INR 42855.10 respectively. We find mixed results as far as the impact of technological variables on agricultural land expansion is concerned. The study concludes that rapid economic growth in the post liberalisation period has failed to reverse agricultural land expansion in India.

This paper examines the impact of the legal form of agricultural firms on the benefit to their owners for a panel of Slovak agricultural firms. We use return on equity (ROE) as a measure of the benefit to owners. Using the repeated measures ANOV A technique, we find that the legal form of a firm is a relevant determinant of the benefit to owners. We conclude that from the point of view of ROE the legal form ‘company’ is preferable over ‘cooperative’.

Agricultural literacy is increasingly regarded as an important issue in sustainability education, yet little survey data regarding children and adolescents are available. We therefore surveyed two different age groups, fifth and sixth graders (n=122) and tenth graders (n=158) of German schools, about their conceptions of farmers’ duties, thereby identifying seven distinct conceptions. The conception most frequently mentioned by the younger students was animals (85.7 per cent) followed by processing (68.7 per cent), whereas the older students named the conception plants (76.0 per cent) most often, followed by animals (65.2 per cent). We found discrepancies in the sub-conceptions of animals between the two age groups, but none in plants. Ecologyrelated aspects (5.1 per cent) were only mentioned by the older students. We then examined the effect of a student having an agricultural family background on the conceptions named. Only 25 per cent of the younger students and none of the older students reported a past contact with farms through visits or guided tours. We found that regardless of having an agricultural family background, most students lack an understanding of the impact of agriculture on the environment. Consequently, we conclude that agricultural education in German schools does not adequately teach modern agricultural...

The paper reports on a sequence of analyses of the local self-governmental authority website-related features in conjunction with the socio-economic characteristics of the respective administrative units (counties and municipalities). These analyses had two objectives: (a) assessment of the local authority websites, their content and functionality, also in a dynamic perspective, and (b) inquiry into the potential interrelations between the specific features of the websites and the nature of the local unit, with special emphasis on the local development in the rural areas and its forward path. The study has been carried out for the capital province of Mazowsze in Poland, but some hints as to a quasi-comparative international study are also provided. First of all, substantial progress between 2003 and 2008 in the quality of the local authority websites is shown. Further, the conclusions from the study imply a rather loose connection between the characteristics of these websites and the socio-economic profile of the unit, including the characterisation along the urban-rural dimension. At the same time, though, an important role becomes apparent, played by the broadly conceived local culture, including the ‘smartness’ aspect, as perceived by the present authors. This role of culture and ‘smartness’ is visible in the very...