Despite the challenges, this year’s drought protection was effective

(Photo: Pixabay)

This year was full of challenges in agriculture: in addition to the appearance of animal diseases, crop production was also in great danger due to the drought, however, “thanks to the government’s measures, we have mitigated drought damage on hundreds of thousands of hectares,” said the Minister of Agriculture. He added that in addition to the establishment of the drought protection operational team, the government has allocated 4.7 billion forints for water replenishment. Thanks to this, more than one billion cubic meters of water was managed to be retained with the involvement of 848 kilometers of canal sections and 1,700 water experts, he listed. “We are very grateful for the selfless help of those farmers who offered their areas for water retention purposes, the size of which exceeded 330 hectares. Despite the attacks of our political opponents, we took over the irrigation water fees of the farmers in the amount of 10 billion forints,” the Minister stated. Within the framework of the Rural Development Program, the Ministry of Agriculture supported the water management projects of more than 1,300 producers, in the amount of 178 billion forints. “As a result of all this, we have doubled the size of the previously irrigated areas, and many old infrastructures have also been renewed,” the Minister summed up. But we cannot stop here, István Nagy continued. According to his statement, two additional tenders are being launched within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan to encourage the increase of irrigated areas, the combined budget of these tenders has reached 67 billion forints. “I am happy to say that today less water flows out of the country than it enters. This year, when we experienced one of the hottest summers in Europe, farmers reported damage to 550 thousand hectares, while this number was almost three times that during the historic drought of 2022, and almost reached 1.5 million hectares,” said István Nagy, adding: we can confidently say that the country’s food supply is still secured. With the corn harvest at 87 percent, the average was over 5 tons per hectare, and this year’s harvest could be around 3.8 million tons. He considered it important to note that farmers are adapting to the challenge and focusing on other crops, as shown by the rising trend of sorghum or sunflower, for example. The price level of large arable crops is currently much higher than in the 2022-2023 period, which fundamentally affects the effectiveness of farming. The drought protection operational team established in May will complete its work this year today, he said. “We thank the farmers for their exemplary diligence and perseverance! As before, they can continue to count on us!” – István Nagy stated in his video message.

AM/MTI