Information about the Agro-ecological Program

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At the same time, Zsolt Feldman drew the attention of the farmers concerned to the most important tasks. He said that 3.49 million hectares of domestic arable land were included, 247.6 thousand hectares of non-Natura 2000 grassland, 240.4 thousand hectares of Natura 2000 grassland and 94.1 thousand hectares of plantations. He pointed out that the most popular practices in arable fields were, in order, the diversification of crop production, the use of microbiological preparations, followed by the use of soil and plant conditioners and nitrogen-fixing preparations. In the case of lawns, the order of most preferred practices is mowing extensive lawns at least once a year, maintaining lawns, grazing or intermittent grazing, and then using only alternating mowing. If we look at the plantations, the most popular practices were the mulching of the plantations with the maintenance of perennial crops or turfing, the use of microbiological preparations in the plantations and the commitment to ban the use of substances dangerous to bees. According to Zsolt Feldman, already during the application submission period, everyone involved experienced that this program requires a new approach and even greater caution than usual with regard to the entire economy. It is important that farmers applying for support consciously follow through on the commitments they made when applying for the AÖP in the coming months.

Among the tasks, there are both practical and administrative ones

• whether it is field, lawn or plantation practice, the undertaken activity is almost always related to some specific farming event (sowing, mowing, harvesting, plant care, etc.). Pay attention to your AÖP commitments when they are implemented;
• do not fail to declare the agrotechnical operations related to individual practices on the surface of the unified application, since recording this is just as important as the operation performed in the practice itself;
• keep the Business Journal either on paper or electronically, but you will definitely have to submit it electronically. The logbook must be up-to-date throughout the year, regardless of the driving method, as this is one of the basic documents examined during a possible on-site inspection;
• producers choosing grazing practices should pay attention to keeping a grazing diary;
• producers who choose bee-friendly crop protection should pay attention to choosing the right product for each pesticide treatment;
• where the producer has undertaken to apply a microbiological preparation, conditioner or biological agent, follow the instructions of the license document and the instructions for use in all respects. We keep the appropriate documents on the origin and quantity of the applied product;
• producers choosing a voluntary field size restriction should make sure on the spot as soon as possible whether any of the neighboring fields has the same plant culture as theirs. If there is one, a separation lane of at least 3 meters must be created immediately;
• producers undertaking no-rotation cultivation should make sure to declare each and every operation on the Unified Application interface that involves disturbance of the soil surface (e.g. cultivator, sowing, rolling, not only the so-called basic cultivation);
• when performing alternating mowing exercises, make sure that the appropriate georeferenced photo is uploaded via the MobilGazda application.

Completing the above tasks is definitely necessary in order to successfully participate in this new support program prescribed by the European Union and to have access to the support – pointed out the state secretary.

AM