Ministry of Agriculture: Corn producers affected by last year’s drought can soon submit their applications

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Last summer, farmers faced a severe drought, which primarily affected spring-sown arable crops, with a special focus on corn – Imre Hubai reminded in the statement. According to the Secretary of State, a total of 142,425 hectares of damaged corn growing area were reported by producers to the agricultural damage mitigation pillar of the agricultural risk management system for last year, of which 137,486 hectares were affected by drought damage. HUF 25.6 billion was paid from the damage mitigation fund for the 2024 damage mitigation year in March 2025, from which a total of HUF 14.8 billion in damage mitigation benefits were determined for corn producers due to last year’s drought damage. Given that the damage mitigation benefit compensated only part of the damage of the affected producers, the Ministry of Agriculture also requested assistance from the EU crisis fund due to the 2024 drought damage. In March 2025, the European Commission decided to provide Hungarian farmers with a total of 16.2 million euros in forint support – added Imre Hubai.

By providing funds from the crisis fund, the Ministry of Agriculture wants to help farmers with smaller areas of less than 150 hectares

Therefore, it has created a new support scheme, the beneficiaries of which are corn producers who, based on their single application submitted in 2024, have an area of ​​up to 150 hectares, within which support under the crisis fund will be available for a maximum of 50 hectares of corn-growing area. The expected amount of the support will be approximately 15-20 thousand forints per hectare – explained the State Secretary. Based on the already effective support decree (20/2025. (VI. 4.) AM Decree), the affected corn producers can submit their applications for financial resources to the Hungarian State Treasury between July 1 and 15, 2025. In order to ensure that no affected corn producer misses out on their application, the Treasury will send them information about the support electronically – the announcement states. In order to reduce the administrative burden on farmers and to process support applications more quickly, producers only need to provide their support ID and make the necessary declarations to use the resources. The Treasury will disburse the amount of the damage mitigation benefit provided from the crisis fund to the corn producers by September 30, 2025 at the latest – the AM announced.

MTI