Agri- environment in the Rural Economy in Hungary Agnes Kaloczkai, Hungarian Academy of Sciences kaloczkai.agnes@gmail.com Dr Eszter Kovacs, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge eszter.kovacs@geog.cam.ac.uk
Outline Agri- environment in Hungary Our approach and the 2014-5 hiatus Environmental impact: land use change Financial role of payments MoDvaDons for pardcipadng Farming Futures
Agri- environment in Hungary 25 High Nature Value areas OperaDonal for >10yrs 270 000 applicants in 2016 Rules encourage environmentally- sensidve farming KEY HNV areas Bekes HNV Kiskunsag HNV Heves Plain HNV Other HNV areas Hungary
Our research quesdons In 2014, the Hungarian government announced that there would be no agri- environment payments for the following farming year We then asked and evaluated 300 farmers for what they did differently? what they kept the same? What was their opinion and experience of conservavon- oriented subsidy programmes? Where did agri- environment payments go? What were their future plans?
Bekes plain HNV Békés- Csanádi hát 74% livestock 18254.3 3200 What land do farmers parvcipate with? Danube plain HNV Dunavölgyi- sík 20835.3 94 % with livestock 23205.6 Heves plain HNV Hevesi- sík 18469.1 63 % with livestock 4500 szántó Arable gyep Grassland Other más 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 45000 50000 ha
1. Environmental impact In 2014-5, the number of farmers that farmed more intensively to HNV requirements were high across all three sites Heves- plain HNV: 60% Danube- plains HNV: 47% Békés- Csanádi plain HNV: 67%
What rules were kept to and why? Over 60% of farmers decided that they were going to actually farm ConservaVon rules were largely ignored Digyelmen Did not kívül keep hagyta a cropping a vetésforgót rotation No land areas nem were hagyott left fallow ugart nem követte Bird- safe a madárbarát mowing kaszálási not followed módot Did not nem use használta bird chains a vadriasztó while mowing láncot több rovarirtószert Used more pesticide használt több Used műtrágyát more fertiliser használt Did not nem plant vetett any lucernát lucerne Did nem not hagyott leave conservation táblaszéli szegélyt lanes 60% 48% 52% 57% 43% 38% 33% 77%
RelaDonship between farm size and rule- keeping 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Did NOT keep HNV rules Kept HNV rules <10 11-49 50-100 101-300 301-500 501-999 1000 < ha
2. Financial impact: agri- environment s part On average, 33% of farmers did not develop their farm in any way during 2014-5: This year, we sold and lived off what we cropped, and nothing got saved. In others years, with agri- environment, we lived and planned with the subsidy, (Farmer, Heves plain, 2016). Subsidies were stated to provide for farm renovadons and to enable further mechanisadon: labour crucial Impact of land size: larger farms stated a preference to outgrow agri- environment dependence
3. ParDcipaDon: modvadons 7% 2% A Because pénzügyi of the ösztönző money miatt Természetvédelmi ConservaVon szempontok miatt A Land gyenge is marginal gazdálkodási 29% adottságok miatt 51% A Land terület is formally védettsége protected miatt 11% Könnyűnek The rules looked tűnt betartani easy az előírásokat
3. ParDcipaDon: highly selecdve 5% 13% 25% 7% 49% adminisztrációs okok miai AdministraVve reasons Higher yield potenvals az intenzívebb termelés lehetősége miai Area not eligible nem igényelhető a területre támogatás Livestock limitavon nincs lehetőség állaiartásra vagy az állatszám növelésére No answer nincs válasz
4. Futures 82% of farmers re- applied in 2016 However:
Conclusions Agri- environment payments led to observable conservadon improvements as perceived by farmers over the past decade HalVng payments stopped HNV land use pracvces Farm size, livestock influences pardcipadon ParDcipaDon in agri- environment highly selecdve: yield potendal and wider support structures are key A more holisdc approach to understanding agri- environment s wider place in the rural economy is required
Thank you Please get in touch: eszter.kovacs@geog.cam.ac.uk kaloczkai.agnes@gmail.com