Oeconomus: the wheat harvest in Hungary increased by 36 percent last year

(Photo: Pixabay)

In Hungary, 55 percent of the country’s territory is agricultural land, mainly arable land (82 percent) and grassland (16 percent). The total agricultural area of the country was 5.1 million hectares in 2023, which shows no difference compared to the value of a year earlier.

According to the analysis, the area sown with cereals has gradually increased over the past years, and last year it already exceeded 2.5 million hectares

The arable area of industrial plants (sunflower, rapeseed, soybeans) shows a slight decrease compared to the year 2022, while an unchanged or slightly increasing trend can be observed for the other plant groups. Wheat, which accounts for 69 percent of the grain yield, was harvested 36 percent more from the 7.6 percent larger arable land than in 2022. Most of the wheat was harvested in the counties of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, Békés and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén. The average yield of wheat in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Hajdú-Bihar, Nógrád and Vas exceeded 6 tons per hectare. The national average was 5,630 kilograms per hectare last year.

The harvested area of other field crops also increased in 2023

In the year 2022, wheat, barley, rye and oats were grown on 1,347,000 hectares, while last year the size of the area reached 1,517,000 hectares. Only the counties of Somogy and Zala harvested less barley than in 2022. Most were harvested in the counties of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, Bács-Kiskun and Békés, the average yield in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and Hajdú-Bihar exceeded 6 tons per hectare. Seven-tenths of the domestic rye crop was harvested in Bács-Kiskun, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg and Pest, and most oats were harvested in the counties of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, Bács-Kiskun and Csongrád-Csanád. The highest average yield of rye was recorded in the county of Vas (5 tons/hectare), and of oats in the county of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg (4 tons/hectare).

Watering also helped

According to the analysis, in addition to the more favorable weather, the expanding irrigation communities also played a major role in the agricultural results of the year 2023. Last year, 5.0 percent of agricultural land was irrigated (258,000 hectares), which is an increase of 2 percentage points compared to 2022. At the same time, a smaller area was affected by the damage caused by the drought last year, all of which is also reflected in the values of the crop quantities – they wrote.

MTI