Deep Roots

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Image: Csaba Pelsöczy, Ministry of Agriculture of Hungary

Family farming contributes to economic development in rural areas by creating rural jobs and securing rural livelihoods

One of the primary goals of the Hungarian Government is to

provide support to the rural population to improve their living

conditions and to enable them to successfully access markets

with their traditional products. The adoption of the new food

safety regulations concerning local markets and the simplifica-

tion of authorization processes has been a great asset to enable

small-scale producers to sell their products locally. According

to current regulation, only smallholders can sell their agricul-

tural products and processed foods at local producer markets.

In Hungary the traditional means of short supply chains

– such as local markets and roadside sales – are wide-

spread. However, modern forms like online sales, common

purchase groups and community-supported agriculture

are less developed than in many Western European and

North American countries. The Ministry of Agriculture

of Hungary encourages participation in the short supply

chain. Participating farmers are usually the smallest ones

(private persons or micro-enterprises), so they have weak

assertiveness and they are inexperienced in complex forms

of cooperation. Therefore it is important to provide them

with focused support.

Providing access to natural resources, especially to land, is

essential for the development of family farms. The New Land

Act, which was adopted in 2013, strengthens family farms

with respect to large-scale agricultural farms, by shifting land

use towards smaller farm sizes. In the management of state-

owned agricultural land in Hungary, guiding principles have

been adopted recently. These are in line with the

Voluntary

Guidelines on the Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and

Forests in the context of National Food Security

, which were

drafted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the

United Nations and adopted by the Committee on World

Food Security in 2012.

Agricultural land is also allocated for the purpose of boost-

ing rural employment. The Social Land Programme holds a

prominent role in handling local unemployment, boosting

rural employment – especially for socially disadvantaged

groups – and creating sustainable development of a region.

Agricultural parcels may be handed over to municipalities’

asset management to promote the implementation of the

Social Land Programme. The size of the land parcel allocated

to one person in the programme may not exceed one hectare.

Transfer of land parcels to asset management for the purpose

of the programme may be for a two-year minimum or 15-year

maximum period. The Social Land Programme contrib-

utes to increasing rural communities’ potential to maintain

their population and to better use local resources, creating a

well-planned course for production and sales that includes

self-sufficiency, market sales and sustainability as well as miti-

gating the effect of geographical disadvantages.

Similarly to many countries, the ageing of the rural popula-

tion – especially farmers – is a great challenge for Hungary.

The average age of a farmer is 56 years, and this has increased

by five years in the last decade alone. To stop this tendency

urgent action is needed. Farming should be a respected

and profitable profession, and a rural lifestyle should again

become a desirable option for youth. To achieve that, complex

development of a wide range of sectors is required including

education, extension services, rural infrastructure and public

services. Targeted support can be provided for young farmers,

as declared in the Hungarian Rural Development Programme

for the 2014-2020 period, to assist them in starting their first

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