Our country strongly supports sustainable agricultural livelihood systems

(Photo: AM/István Fekete)

The head of the department explained that consumer decisions have a decisive influence on the strategies of the actors in the food chain, so shaping consumer behavior contributes to the sustainability of agricultural food systems in several ways. In Hungary, one of the prominent attitude-shaping programs is “Leftover”, whose educational materials are already available to the young generation in elementary school, since it is important to start teaching them about conscious consumption and shopping as early as possible, he added. According to the minister, we are on the right track, only 10% of food purchased in our country ends up in the trash, while globally an average of 30% of food is wasted.

Digitization helps agriculture

István Nagy also drew attention to the fact that the government supports agricultural digitization for the sake of stability and predictability, since better management decisions can be made based on more data and better quality information. In addition, we reduce production risks and the ecological footprint of agriculture, increasing efficiency, competitiveness and income level, he added. The head of the ministry emphasized that we support small producers through policy incentives in order to improve livelihoods in rural areas. We are also looking for a solution to the problem of the aging of the agrarian society through the legal regulation of family farms. Achieving our goals requires stronger cooperation, greater commitment and joint efforts, for which exchanges such as the International Food Safety Conference in Samarkand can provide a suitable platform, the minister emphasized.

AM