Agricultural sciences are key for Hungary

(Photo: István Fekete)

At the opening of the Agricultural Science Section of the National Scientific Student Conference (OTDK), Zsolt Feldman emphasized that the work, thoughts, and knowledge of agricultural science students provide the foundation on which the sector can build in the future. The knowledge capital that agricultural higher education has accumulated in the past decades, and which we are working to strengthen, will be redeemed by you, with you, he told his audience. At the same time, he drew the students’ attention to the fact that the talent with which they got here “works” if there is creativity, dynamism, and a curious attitude behind it. “I wish that you want to be the best in what you do, you can benefit the profession and the world if you have it in you – he said. Zsolt Feldman also touched on the fact that, in addition to technical sciences, the field of agricultural sciences offers the most opportunities “two to walk on the ground” because this profession is “rooted in the earth, working with plants, animals, soil and water”.

Csaba Gyuricza, rector of the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said that Kaposvár last hosted the Agricultural Sciences Section of the OTDK twenty years ago.

For this year’s three-day event, which welcomes the most talented students preparing for agricultural careers, 284 projects from 23 Hungarian higher education institutions were nominated, which the students will present in 29 professional departments. “Our almost three-quarter century movement can rightfully be called Hungarian, since the scientific student circle was the only form of college and university years in an international perspective for decades, which supported the development of talents through competition, based on self-activity and the partnership of master and student,” he emphasized.

Many people applied for the OTDK

Tamás Weiszburg, the president of the National Academic Student Council (OTDT), announced that the OTDK is traditionally organized in 16 sections in parallel. “This is Hungary’s largest continuous scientific event, this year, out of more than 14,000 papers, the approximately 5,000 that were nominated in the 16 sections were selected, the number of student presenters, trainers and reviewers together reaches 13-14,000,” Mátyus added. László, the OTDT’s vice-president responsible for life sciences, emphasized that every student who came to the scientific student circle conference was a winner. They already won when they chose the scientific student circle instead of other activities, joined a workshop, chose a mentor, got to know the methodology of cultivating science, and learned about the world around us. He believed that those who joined a scientific student circle, even if they do not continue their career as a researcher, will be significantly better professionals than those who were not given this opportunity.

MTI