Government of Republic of Hungary : The output of Hungarian agriculture increased by 55 percent between 2010 and 2016

'The output of Hungarian agriculture increased by 55 percent between 2010 and 2016', Minister of State for Agricultural Economy György Czerván said at a training course for Békés and Somogy County agricultural leaders in Harkány.

In his lecture, Mr. Czerván highlighted: 'Thanks to agricultural funding, the profitability of Hungarian agriculture has improved tangibly in recent years; funding has stabilised the position of farmers'.

Funding within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) represents 36.1 percent of the total EU funding received by Hungary in the 2014-2020 period. During this period, a total of 12.4 billion euros in funding is available within the framework of direct agricultural subsidies and rural development funding. Hungary's share of the total CAP budget is 3.19 percent.

'Hungary's position with regard to EU funding is one of the best relative to the other countries of the European Union, and one of our important targets is that this share should not decrease', the Minister of State noted.

'However, we must also prepare for the eventuality that the structure of the CAP following 2020 may be influenced by other, previously unforeseen factors such as Brexit, pressure from new challenges such as the migration crisis, and continuous demand from society for the reinforcement of the CAP's sustainability from an economic, environmental and climate perspective', Mr. Czerván said.

Brussels has already placed significant emphasis on environmental and climate-related factors in the current CAP and accordingly, farmers may receive additional funding in addition to their basic per hectare subsidies of some 45 thousand forints (EUR 144), providing they fulfil greening conditions. This means farmers can achieve over 70 thousand forints in funding per hectare.

Mr. Czerván drew attention to the fact that, drawing on prior experience and in the interests of making life easier for farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture has amended several of its greening regulations, which farmers must pay attention to in their unified applications for 2017 funding.

The Minister of State also stated that the Ministry had reviewed funding based on production within the framework of the CAP for the period 2015-2020, as a result of which the Ministry has performed several, mainly technical corrections in cooperation with professional organisations, the most important of which are as follows:

In the unified application for 2017 funding with regard to dairy cows, only animals that have given birth prior to 31 March, which are at least 23 months old and which were already present on the applicant's farm on 31 March will be eligible.

Rice farmers must certify a per hectare yield of at least 2.5 tons. Further regulations are also changing with regard to herbs that quality as vegetables: for instance, mint, basil, tarragon and rosemary are eligible for funding, while oilseed radishes will be excluded. Among industrial vegetables, potatoes will be eligible for funding. The seed norm for spinach, peas and both grain and green protein crops have also been amended. Certain regulations are also changing with regard to fruits, thanks to which new cultures such as blueberries, rowan and rosehip will become eligible for funding. Another change with regard to fruit is that we will now be differentiating between intensive and extensive/traditional fruit farms.

(Ministry of Agriculture Press Office)