There is a wide range of sustainable management practices

(Photo: AM/István Fekete)

In his presentation, Zsolt Feldman emphasized that in recent years, the pressure on sustainability issues affecting agriculture has increased in Europe: on the one hand, through EU regulations, on the other hand, on the part of consumers, but also, on the third hand, it is also in the interest of our own farmers to properly manage natural resources. He highlighted the regulations related to soil protection, improvement of soil structure and water retention, the enforcement of which would be extremely necessary from the economic side in Hungary, even in the absence of a mandatory nature, especially with regard to mitigating the negative effects of climate change through them.

The state secretary explained that last year’s energy crisis pointed out the importance of rationalizing input costs

For this reason, it is an important goal for medium and small agricultural enterprises to learn about and apply the potential of precision farming, which greatly helps in their optimization. In the 2021 precision tender, more than 2,600 farmers received assistance worth almost HUF 200 billion for the acquisition and application of technology. Zsolt Feldman explained: it is a serious opportunity for the sector that, in accordance with the government’s decision, additional co-financing of 80 percent is added to the EU rural development resources. Thanks to this, it is possible to meet the at least 30 percent spending rate required by the European Union in the various green-type rural development calls for tenders, while HUF 1,500 billion is available for agricultural and food industry investments until 2027. In this way, the green transition of domestic agricultural and food industry plants can be ensured, which will bring not only environmental but also economic benefits. He also touched on the fact that documenting compliance with the EU’s sustainability conditions imposes a significant administrative burden on those active in agriculture. Like all regulations, this one is standardized, the same criteria apply to everyone, which, due to the diversity of agriculture, arable land, and farms, often pose serious difficulties in their individual application. This also applies in case of compliance with green aspects.

AM