Farmers are being helped with subsidies and measures

By: STA Date: 2025. 06. 12. 10:30

Without successful agriculture, there is no successful countryside, no secure food supply and no liveable city. Therefore, the government views the players in the sector, especially farmers, as strategic partners, for whom there are a large number of application opportunities that make their competitiveness and income security, as well as their everyday lives easier, said Imre Hubai, State Secretary for Agriculture at the Dombóvár Farmers’ Circle’s first agricultural forum this year.

(Photo: Pixabay)

Imre Hubai emphasized that the subsidies inherent in the Common Agricultural Policy provide significant assistance in supplying consumers with safe Hungarian food, in accessing the market and in increasing competitiveness. The prerequisite for payments is strict compliance with them, but it is worth making sacrifices for applications, because the developments financed from them create the foundations of successful farming, the State Secretary emphasized, adding that, among many others, these sources of support would also be at risk if an unprepared country, Ukraine, were to join the European Union. According to Imre Hubai, in 2022 we already experienced the loss of markets associated with the import of uncontrolled, dubious-quality grain and the threat of losing our GMO neutrality.

The greatest risk to agriculture today is drought

The accelerated drainage caused by previous river regulations, the lack of precipitation caused by climate change, and the drought situation that has developed have made it essential to review water management practices and increase the water resources stored in the landscape. The government took steps to find a solution at the beginning of May: it established the Drought Protection Operational Group, declared a state of drought emergency, and the implementation of the Drought Protection Action Plan is underway. The government has reallocated 4.7 billion forints of additional resources for its elements, the repair of canals, and with them the immediate measures to fill the storage capacity of lakes and backwaters to the maximum, and to retain approximately 150-200 million cubic meters more surface water. In addition, the government has taken over the agricultural water service fees payable this year from farmers, the coverage of which, 8.122 billion forints, is provided by the 2025 central budget, and has allocated an additional 10.2 billion forints for investments that can be implemented this year. Thanks to all this, farmers can access water more easily and under more favorable conditions, which has a high added value even in the short term – he explained.