Holding structure in Hungarian agriculture

Oros, Iván (2003) Holding structure in Hungarian agriculture. Hungarian Statistical Review, 81 (SN8). pp. 1-25. ISSN 0039-0690

Preview

Text 2003_K8_031.pdf Download (254kB) | Preview

Abstract

The productivity of the agrarian sector is a result of the quantity and quality of available production instruments (including arable land, livestock, machinery and labour force etc.), and the coordinated use of these factors. In countries at higher level of economic evelopment, a volume growth in food production has been achieved parallel with the reduction of both the labour force employed in agriculture and the area of land used, bolstered by increasing external support. Hungary’s aspiration to access the European Union has created a new situation when the country has to make a serious choice. Throughout the twentieth century, Hungary’s agricultural sector had to face various problems both in the economic and the social scene. Rural Hungary suffered the most critical damage due to the fact that within 50 years, three fundamental changes occurred in the structure of the cultivation and ownership of land. Even after 1990, we are still waiting for a truly efficient solution. There has been a 30–40 percent drop from the earlier level of production, and this depression has not been appropriately addressed by recent agricultural policies. A concentration of ownership, similar in tendencies to what is in progress in the EU countries, has started in Hungary, resulting in the reduction of the number of small individual farms and adding up to more and more farms of optimum size. Nearly half of Hungary’s arable land area is cultivated by various associated business enterprises.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item