Subsidies encourage soil-friendly farming and professional research

(Photo: AM/Csaba Pelsőczy)

The deputy state secretary emphasized that, in contrast to previous support systems, among the goals set out in the Strategic Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy, in addition to water protection, the soil also receives special attention. Among the goals of the KAP, our country undertook that by 2023, by the end of the first year of support, more than 1 million hectares of land-saving farming will take place. Despite this, the agricultural producers – through the various support programs – have undertaken three times this amount, in the case of a total of 3 million hectares, that they are farming beneficial from the point of view of soil protection. Anikó Juhász said that it is important to strengthen education and knowledge transfer, and educational institutions, civil organizations, and the professional and research programs of the Hungarian Geological Society have a role to play in this.

The “Decade of Soils” will end in 2024, with which the International Union of Soil Science, IUSS, draws attention to the importance of the sustainable use and protection of soils

Its purpose is to promote the protection of soils, the improvement of soil quality and the support of scientific research related to soil. That is why we should take stock this year: we have three big tasks ahead of us – emphasized Anikó Juhász. Producers manage four natural resources: water, air, biodiversity and soil. The first three of these already have European Union regulations, the ground is now being prepared. The deputy state secretary added that the proposal for a directive on soil condition monitoring and resilience was published by the European Commission in the summer of 2023. The discussion of the draft is still ongoing. He pointed out that there are few specialized fields such as soil, which appear as a separate research field in the European Union, within the framework of the “Soil Mission”. During our country’s presidency of the EU, it is a high priority that the 11 member states of the Central and Eastern European region jointly receive a regional research fund, and one of the four topic areas should be soil. This would be a great opportunity for domestic soil experts to carry out R&D activities with the help of targeted resources, he underlined. The three-day program of the Soil Wandering Assembly provided a forum and an opportunity for a professional meeting of professionals dealing with soil science and its related sciences. At the event, the most important Hungarian representatives of the science of soil science received professional awards.

AM