The specific nature of agricultural production makes transport processes particularly important in its organization. A farm is a transport unit “involuntarily,” as many activities involve movement within farm facilities (mainly feed, water, manure, etc.), as well as outside on the scale of the farm and the surrounding area.
One can point here to the transport needs from the farm of seeds to the field, seed potatoes, mineral fertilizers, natural fertilizers (manure, liquid manure, slurry), water for watering animals, sprays, etc. At the same time, transport takes place in the opposite direction, that is, from the field to the farm, where products such as cereal grains, legumes, hay, green fodder, silage, straw, and also, for example, cereal or rapeseed grains directly to external recipients are transported. Transport processes therefore play a significant role in the functioning of a farm, including as a place for generating costs.
Aim and research method
The aim of the article is to indicate the issues of transport processes as an important source of logistics costs on farms. The work uses publications in the field of agricultural economics, logistics, and logistics costs. The literature study method was used. Methods of graphic presentation (drawings, diagrams) were used.
Logistics costs on a farm
Agriculture is a sector of the economy in which transport and storage processes, which are common on farms, are of great importance. From a logistics perspective, a farm can therefore be defined as a purposefully organized system of interrelated logistics processes, the task of which is to produce agricultural products using land, labor, capital, management decisions (the farmer), and the forces of nature. In this approach, the issue of process management arises, which, according to S. Jarzębowski, is an essential mechanism enabling the optimal and efficient execution of processes within a given enterprise, as well as the entire supply chain.
Key logistics processes on a farm are transport and storage, and their role results, among other things, from the spatial nature of production and the phenomenon of seasonality. The necessity of transport and storage has an impact on the formation of costs on the farm. In accounting terms, they include actually incurred monetary expenses related to conducting business activities. In economic terms, however, they are a broader concept, including both actually incurred and calculated costs, including opportunity costs. Logistics costs are the purposeful consumption of enterprise resources expressed in monetary units and financial expenses caused by the flow of material goods (raw materials and materials, products in progress, finished products and goods), inventory maintenance, and information processing related to logistics activities in the enterprise and its supply chains.
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Source: Logistyka Magazine 2/2013