SOME THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL QUESTIONS OF THE ECONOMIC RESEARCH IN HORTICULTURE IN HUNGARY

Importance of the production of horticulture within the Hungarian agriculture is considerable and is becoming even more so.
About 13 to 14 per cent of the total agricultural output is represented by the three main branches, i.e. by vegetable growing, fruit production and by the grape-wine economy.
In addition to supplying domestic population almost entirely, branches of horticulture and food industries relying on them assure about 35 to 40 per cent of the export by the Hungarian food economy.
Consumption levels of vegetable and fruit products may be considered satisfactory, however, they should be developed in both quantitative and qualitative respects.
Thus considerable domestic requirements are set up against this branch in Hungary.
At the same time, my country – as many others with scarce raw material resources – has to utilize such available resources /first of all labour and favourable geographical conditions for agricultural production/, which allow an economic and competitive marketing of Hungarian products on the international market and assuring the financial base for energy and raw material imports.
Among such products the output of horticulture, its raw and processed products play a significant role.

Consequently, it is obvious that a development of horticulture has to meet a double requirement.
It has to serve the purpose of meeting both domestic and foreign market requirements.
Meeting the demand of domestic population at growing levels originates in our basic political objectives but it requires only a smaller portion of additional production capacities.
Thus in development of the branch a determining role is played by export considerations.
In short, in horticultural production we need an efficient performance by international standard and an adjustment to the requirement of foreign markets.
All this raises the role and tasks of economic sciences in economic research of Hungarian horticulture.

1. Economics of horticultural branches as a concept and a principle of science organization has been used in Hungarian agricultural economics since the mid-sixties,

V Symposium on Horticultural Economics

G.Y. Varga

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1978.77.40