Combined elaboration of the first and second parts of papers prepared for presentation at the IAMO FORUM 2007 Halle, Germany 24-29 June 2007 and the IAAE-EAAE 104th seminar Budapest, Hungary 6-8 September 2007. In 2003 a research study looked at the position of smallholders; the survey was...

In 2003 a research study looked at the position of smallholders; the survey was carried out using questionnaires and interviews. The 613 farms included in the survey were situated in 3 counties in the Southern Great Plain of Hungary and in 3 counties of the Western part of the country...

Land has had a crucial role in the rural-nationalist ideology, especially with respect to its scarcity. In this ideology the land itself embodies a symbolic meaning which could be referred to as the "national mother-earth" which must be protected from aliens. This was the reason why the...

Over fifteen years have elapsed since the transition from the centrally planned economic system started in the early 1990âs. During this time agricultural and rural areas of Central and Eastern Europe have undergone profound structural changes with wide variations in the degree of...

Agricultural restructuring in Eastern Europe is a part of the restructuring of the economy as a whole. After democratic changes, Eastern European countries have fallen into a deep crisis. There are several reasons for this, including the large debt burden, decreased export opportunities, and...

Section I challenges Schultz's assertions: (1) small farmers are rational; (2) low income countries saddled with traditional agriculture have not the problem of many farmers leaving agriculture for nonfarm jobs; (3) part-time farming can be efficient; (4) economies of scale do not exist in...

The constant request for product and service quality is the major challenge of the 1990s for the food industry. Both developed and developing countries have faced food quality, safety, and nutrition issues to some extent. Everyone in the world deserves the right to have enough and safe food....

This paper presents results of estimates of both the financial robustness and the technical efficiency of a representative sample of Scottish farms. Emphasis was placed on those factors that impact on long-term sustainability in order to identify those effects that may be characterised as having...