In his video statement, István Nagy reminded that “last year’s drought, wartime inflation, the failed Brussels sanctions and the market challenges caused by duty-free Ukrainian crops created extraordinary conditions in agriculture”. In this situation, efforts must be made to ensure that the HUF 600 billion EU rural development subsidy, which the Hungarian government supplements with an additional HUF 2,300 billion, is spent on effective support for agriculture and rural development, he added.
He believed:
this source is sufficient to increase the added value, to strengthen the sustainability of Hungarian food production, to achieve domestic economic and rural development goals, and to meet the EU’s green expectations at the same time.
Explaining the schedule, he said: calls for forest management can start from February 2024, and the first tender package for agricultural and food industry investment support can be published in March. This includes calls for investment in the food industry, feed industry, horticulture and animal husbandry.
It is also planned to start the ecologically important land use change subsidies at the beginning of spring, the call to help generational change can be prepared by summer, while the preparation of the rural development tender constructions is expected by autumn – he listed.
Furthermore, another investment and tender package will be announced by the end of next year, which will help precision farming or the technological renewal of crop cleaning and drying – he added.
The announced tenders – he continued – provide both small, medium and large farms with the opportunity to react to the economic and market changes of the past two years to make their production more efficient, or even to put their activities on more footing.
With the grants, 11 professional programs will be implemented that help economic development, the creation of the conditions for a green future, and the renewable countryside. By 2027, HUF 1,500 billion can be spent on economic development, and HUF 1,000 billion can be spent on creating the conditions for a green future – he explained.
