Horizontal Integration – New Challenges and Opportunities for Farmers in Horticulture Sector in Preserving Rural Areas

In our paper we will focus on human factor in preserving economic sustainability in rural areas. When we talk about revitalization of rural areas, we must take into consideration that agricultural activities could be one factor of these processes. In the rural areas the role of agriculture, especially the role of horticulture is determinant taking its high labour demand into consideration. The vertical connections are motivated between the participants on a food chain by the intention of increasing efficiency, reaching market benefits, reducing uncertainty and risk, and costs of production. From that point of view cooperation among rural habitants could give a chance for them to become real economic partners. In the paper we examine the process of setting up producers’ organizations in Hungary, focusing on those factors that force their cooperation and integration. We emphasize why this process is so slow and why it is necessary to make the cooperation stronger among farmers. We will show how important is the willingness to cooperation of people living in rural areas to work together in order to gain economic personal and social aims at the same time