The role of National Agricultural Chamber's advisors in the life of farmers in Heves County

Abstract

The Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture (HCA) was established in the spring of 2013 as a public body. The main tasks of the HCA are strengthening and advocacy of domestic agricultural and food sector, supporting the competitiveness of Hungarian food, furthermore the consultancy and delivering fast, accurate and reliable information to farmers. After the integration of village consultants’ network in 2014, the HCA established a unified support system for farmers. This system is based on five pillars: information, consulting, training, project management and European Innovation Partnership. Studia Mundi - Economica Vol. 6. No. 1.(2019) 12 10.18531/Studia.Mundi.2019.06.01.11-21 In Heves County, 25 village consultants and 4 village consultant administrators perform advisory tasks coordinated by the chief village consultants. The scope of official duties performed by the network: crop estimation, data collection and reporting tasks associated with state rating, assessment of damages in agriculture etc. The advisors validate about 9500 farmers’ cards year by year. In my research I examined the main features of the village consultants and farmers receiving services (such as age, gender, level of education, professional experience, current scope of activities and contacts between the two groups). I hypothesized that the age and vocational qualifications of the farmers are determining the number of services used. To answer my research questions I performed primary data collection in Heves County. I compiled two questionnaires, one for the farmers (N=150) and one for the village consultants (N=18). To answer the remaining outstanding issues, I conducted interview-based survey involving 4 experts. In the course of the survey research for the village consultants I examined their most important activities and ranked them by the number of mention. Overall, the village consultant network plays an important role in the life of the farmers regardless of age or level of education.