Three people received NAK’s Károlyi award

NAK’s national delegate meeting was hosted by the Specialized Museum of Agricultural Equipment and Machine Development History in Gödöllő on December 13, 2023. At the event, NAK president Balázs Győrffy reported on the chamber’s activities this year, and director-general Attila Szedlák presented the budget for 2024. MAGOSZ president Jakab István also greeted the delegates. Zsolt Feldman, the state secretary responsible for agriculture and rural development, gave information about the application possibilities expected next year. The Sándor Károlyi awards, established by the chamber in 2019, were also presented at the event. Up to three people can receive the award each year, in recognition of their excellent performance and high-quality professional activities in the fields of agriculture, food industry or rural development. The chamber’s national presidency also agreed with the unanimous professional position of the proposing committee regarding this year’s awardees.

The three prize winners received their awards from Balázs Győrffy and István Jakab:

Szabolcs Fazekas is the mayor of Tomajmonostora in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county. His parents worked in agriculture, and he also chose this profession. He has been a member of the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County Assembly for several terms and until today. First as a municipal representative, then as mayor from 2006, he tries to develop his settlement, recently, for example, they got a village bus. The Foundation for the Children of Tomajmonostora and Újszentgyörgy was established, through which they organize camps for children with the help of local entrepreneurs. In addition, they traditionally support the needy with meat products and durable food at Christmas.

Tibor Kozma, chairman of the Small Producers, cooperation and local initiatives department of the NAK Győr-Moson-Sopron county. He has been farming with his family since 1993, currently cultivating 67 hectares of arable land, 40 hectares of forest and 0.3 hectares of vineyards. He has been active in Csikvánd since 1998 as a municipal representative, later as deputy mayor, and from 2006 to the present day as mayor. Since 2012, the settlement has been participating in the Startmunka Minta and other programs based on it, thanks to which unemployment in the village has greatly decreased. From the second year of the public works program, local public employment focused exclusively on agriculture. Tibor Kozma is an excellent role model for the elderly and the young as to how it is possible to farm while providing a secure livelihood for the family in today’s adverse situation.

Imre Rácz is the county president of NAK Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg. He has been connected to agriculture since childhood. As a student, and later as an employee, he was interested in crop cultivation and mechanical engineering. He is a founding member of the Balkány Farmers’ Circle, founded in 2007, and president of the Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Farmers’ Association. As the county president of NAK, he considers it a matter of his heart to facilitate access to the market for farmers in the region, to strengthen small farms, and to take advantage of the positives inherent in cooperation. At the beginning of the 2010s, he started working on the construction of an ice damage mitigation system, which not only protects his narrow homeland against ice damage, but also provides protection for farmers throughout the country. It is also thanks to his self-sacrificing work that the chamber became the developer and operator of the national system that started on May 1, 2018. In 2012, the Minister of Rural Development awarded him the Golden Wreath Farmer Award.

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