István Nagy: the Hungarian government is not standing idly by in the drought situation

István Nagy, Minister of Agriculture

István Nagy reminded us at a press conference prior to the farmers’ forum held in the town of Csongrád-Csanád county that the government had already formed the drought protection operational team in May, in order to have time to develop a coordinated series of government measures that could mitigate the damage caused by the drought. The government has provided 4.7 billion forints for the most obvious works, such as dredging the canals, increasing their capacity, and repairing the pumps and culverts, the politician said, adding that the goal is to flood all canals with water. He pointed out that this is a serious challenge, as there is 60 percent less water in the Tisza and 40 percent less water in the Danube than usual. The government has spent 176 billion forints on renewing the infrastructure for farmers, in order to be able to irrigate as much land as possible. As a result, the size of the irrigated area has increased from the initial 85-86 thousand to 150 thousand hectares, and the water management of 350 thousand hectares has been improved, István Nagy announced. Experts are working to be able to capture approximately 3 billion cubic meters of water – an amount equivalent to one and a half Lake Balaton – by the end of 2026, the minister said, emphasizing that a change in attitude has been achieved, so “we will release less water from the country than it receives”. The changes in legislation encourage farmers to store water, and to this end, the support structure has been modified, and temporary reservoirs have also been converted to conserve water, he said.

István Nagy explained that more than a thousand people are working every day to solve water supply problems and mitigate drought damage

The head of the Ministry of Agriculture considers it an important step that the government has taken over the water service fee from farmers, who can access the necessary irrigation water for free thanks to this approximately 10 billion forint subsidy. According to the Minister of Agriculture, the Tisza Party, which “wants to achieve results by ingratiating itself with the rural farming community,” is committing the greatest betrayal in Brussels. It supports the water framework directive “dictated by Brussels” that would prohibit the free provision of irrigation water to farmers, he said. He said that the government must also deal with the fact that Brussels politics has made a pact with Ukraine behind the backs of farmers. They are not considering the interests of European farmers, but of Ukrainian farmers, and their agreement would ensure the long-term arrival of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU, he stated. The government is mobilizing all its forces to protect the interests of European farmers, including Hungarian farmers, he said. He added that a safeguard clause is needed that provides an advantage for border countries. Hungarian farmers cannot be left alone, István Nagy stated.

MTI