AM: cultivating home gardens is a useful and value-creating activity

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Sándor Farkas emphasized that the Ministry of Agriculture strongly supports the value-creating activities carried out by the approximately 20,000 members of the association of garden lovers and hundreds of thousands of garden owners besides them. Their activities cover both modern cultivation and the care of old Hungarian landscape types, and they also contribute to a healthy, balanced way of life by forming a community and taking on the task of sharing knowledge, he said.

Sándor Farkas emphasized that the expertise and hard work required for gardening deserves respect and attention. A key element in boosting horticulture is to have local cultivation and sales in a given location, through a short supply chain. The government helped this by enabling direct sales for small producers in 2010. Primary producers can also supply their immediate surroundings with delicious, healthy vegetables and fruits through the local markets. The state secretary recalled: in the context of a call for tenders published in October 2020, local governments and non-profit organizations operating in rural areas could submit a grant request of up to HUF 100 million for the creation and development of new or existing markets and fairgrounds serving local product sales. Sándor Farkas added that, according to the decisions, from May 2021 the awarded support exceeded HUF 12.5 billion. “Our goal is to make the Hungarian countryside livable, and to provide the Hungarian population with the right quality and quantity of food, so that our country remains a safe and peaceful place in the heart of Europe,” said the state secretary.

MTI