The operational competitiveness of Hungarian cereal growing farms

Fogarasi, József – Tóth, József

On the basis of data from test-enterprises between 1998-2002 we investigated in this study the operational competitiveness of Hungarian cereal growing farms as function of farm size and type, quality of soil and age of manager controlling the farm. Ranking order determined against the borderline of best practices measured as maximum output per unit input constituted the basis of the assessment of operative competitiveness. According to the OCRA model unstable improvements in operational competitiveness of cereal growers could be observed during the study period at the studied farms. Of the investigated enterprises bigger farms displayed higher operational competitiveness than smaller farms. Farms specializing in cereal growing achieved higher operational competitiveness than those specializing in animal husbandry or mixed operations. Quality of soil as a variable yielded the expected conclusion: the better soil farmers were working, the higher operational competitiveness they could achieve. Cereal grower managers aged between 40 to 50 years achieved the highest operational competitiveness.

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