Anikó Raisz: in addition to the sustainability of agricultural areas, it is also important to manage the situation caused by periods of water shortage

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Speaking to international journalists ahead of the meeting of the Environment Council, Anikó Raisz highlighted the Hungarian program called Water in the Landscape!, in which agricultural producers can offer part of their land to participate in water retention.

According to her, increasingly larger areas are included in the water retention program

And with more and more agricultural professionals and agronomists thinking that they can offer part of their land for this purpose, they can ensure economic benefits for themselves not only in the short term, but also in the medium and long term, she added. These are steps in Hungary that are progressive for the entire European continent, he stated. He said that 84 percent of the agricultural land in Hungary is among the ecologically better managed land. This means that, like in other European countries, farmers in Hungary would like to do something to apply a more sustainable and environmentally sound production method. “In agriculture and food production, we must pay attention to seeing farmers as partners. Farmers are the solution, not part of the problem,” he said. The State Secretary called it important that the topic of strengthening competitiveness, which was a priority for the Hungarian EU presidency during the previous six months, was heard, and – as he pointed out – a change can already be seen in European policy in this area. Therefore – as he emphasized – the Clean Industry Agreement is a document that can also be considered a step in the right direction on the part of Hungary.

Anikó Raisz also spoke about the issue of cross-border waste transport

In this regard, she explained: “international agreements are indeed important, but how we implement them is at least as important”. She said that Hungary carries out numerous international inspections together with border countries, as this is the only way to prevent waste shipments from arriving and being dumped in a given member state that should not be there. It is important that only legal shipments are allowed to cross the border, and illegal ones are not, added the State Secretary of the Ministry of Energy.

MTI