Hungarian agriculture achieved the 5th highest efficiency improvement in the EU

Zsolt Feldman, State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture (Photo: Tibor Vermes)

Zsolt Feldman emphasized: the territorial productivity of agriculture increased by 130 percent between 2010 and 2022 at current prices, substantially exceeding the 52 percent value of the European Union as a whole. At the conference “Development of the agricultural machinery industry on agricultural product lines”, the state secretary reminded that technological modernization is taking place in domestic agriculture, in 2022 farmers spent HUF 686.2 billion on improvements, 6.6 percent more at constant prices than in 2021. He added that, as in 2021, the investment subsidies of the Rural Development Program (VP) made a significant contribution to the expansion of investments in 2022. Within the framework of the investment subsidies, HUF 226 billion were paid to farmers in 2022 as a whole, which, calculated with 50 percent co-financing, contributed to about HUF 452 billion in investment. The unchanged price value of investments increased by 80.8 percent between 2010 and 2022, all of which contributed to the increase in the sector’s productivity and international competitiveness.

Within the developments, the development of agricultural machinery sales has been showing dynamic growth for years

In 2022, another record was set: individual farms and cooperative enterprises bought HUF 385 billion worth of new agricultural machines and tools, which was 65 percent more than the sales of the previous year, he added. Zsolt Feldman emphasized that the Rural Development Program has a great role in the expansion of the agricultural machinery market, and in the past period, you could apply for the purchase of machines and tools in the program. The state secretary recalled that a call for tenders was published in 2021 to support the renewal of horticultural farms, aiming at the technological renewal of farms with smaller farms. In the case of animal farms, they provided the opportunity to purchase technologies related to feeding, machines for handling materials within the plant, and tools and machines for harvesting fiber fodder. 2,650 applications received 194 billion forints in the tender for precision transition.

Zsolt Feldman also spoke about helping market development abroad

He emphasized the importance of cooperation in order to support international market acquisitions. Regarding the domestic market and the common agricultural policy (KAP), he said: they are striving to make technological upgrading available to all agricultural producers, and in this they are planning complex calls that will encompass the entire technological range from raw material production to processing. He added that he considers it important that, after the hopeful conclusion of a period with many difficulties for agricultural production, from the end of this year, new calls and opportunities can be presented and published on the investment tender page, which in the coming years will replace the very intensive developments of the past period, worth hundreds of billions of forints will continue.

MTI