For the future

In the last few years ecological farming was developing fast in Hungary. Dr Péter Roszík, vice president of the Hungarian Biocontrol Association told our magazine that their mission is to represent the interests of those who do organic farming, plus they also want to increase the share of organic farming in agriculture.

The association also operates an organic market in Budapest and the audit and certification company Biokontroll Hungária Nonprofit Kft. In the 2016 rural development programme the government earmarked large sums for developing the sector. At the moment 200,000 hectares of land are cultivated ecologically, instead of the former 130,000 hectares. State funding contributed to the progress of the whole sector, e.g. product innovation, modernising production facilities and farms, supporting young farmers, etc.

The proportion of organic products that aren’t exported grew and their processing level increased considerably in the last few years. Still, export is important in the sector and it is a good thing that farmers sell a lot of organic products in other EU markets. Thanks to the technological development, much more pest control and other products can be used in organic farming than in the past, making the work of farmers more effective. One of the latest trends in ecological farming is that ancient wheat types are more and more popular.

Ecological farming also suffers from the problem of the workforce shortage. Since this sector of agriculture is also dependant on EU funding, it can’t be told at the moment what kind of opportunities farmers will have after 2020. Farmers are hopeful that not only funding won’t reduce, but more money will be available to them. //