The ice damage mitigation system started its seventh protection season

(Photo: Pixabay)

The system that sends silver iodide into the clouds from 986 points in the country prevents billions of forints in damage to agriculture every year, and also protects residential, industrial and state facilities, real estate and chattels.

The warning period of the ice damage mitigation system, which started on April 15, 2024, lasts until September 30, 2024

The soil generators of the system, consisting of a total of 986 – 219 automatic and 767 manual – soil generators providing national coverage, burn an active substance containing silver iodide, which rises up into the clouds, reducing the size of the ice particles that form there. The probability of the occurrence of hail cannot be completely ruled out, but it can be guaranteed that the size of falling ice particles will be smaller than those that would fall without the use of the system. In 2023, the defense season between April 15 and September 30, the generators had to be switched on for 96 days, for a total of 176,639 operating hours. And the results speak for themselves: in 2023, farmers reported ice damage to only 30,678 hectares, while in 2017, the last year when the national system was not in operation, it was much more than twice as large, to 72,000 hectares. The system proves its raison d’être year after year, and the generator operators, who are on standby every day and respond quickly to alarms, play a big role in this.

This year is now the seventh year of operation of the system built by NAK, and for its operation, the government – in order to protect the Agricultural Damage Mitigation Fund – provides a maximum of 2 billion in special funds from the budget per year

In addition to damage prevention, the system supports the analyzes necessary for the development of the agricultural damage mitigation system by providing data, and coordinates cooperation with partner organizations involved in the operation of JÉGER. According to calculations, 1 forint spent on the system saves about 33 forints in annual production value, which means 66 billion forints in saved production value annually.

NAK is also announcing a competition for generator operators this year

At the end of the alert period, the best county and national operators will receive a reward. Managing the generators is a big responsibility, and the chamber wishes to acknowledge their dedicated work with this gesture. According to the latest analyses, in Europe, the number of hailstorms containing ice over 2 centimeters in size has more than tripled in the period 2021-2023 compared to the period 2015-2017, rising by 215%. At the same time – as a result of the system with national coverage – despite the increasingly extreme weather factors in Hungary, this increase was only 50%.

NAK