Hungary: Greening regulation loosened

The Ministry of Agriculture has amended its greening regulation (10/2015 (III. 13.) Ministry Decree), affecting the conditions for ecological focus areas (EFA) on arable lands of over 15 hectares. The regulation also affects diversification conditions for arable lands of over 10 hectares.

This regulation change follows the March 23 decision of the European Commission to introduce a number of short to middle term measures in order to boost global food security and aid food production in Europe.

As a part of the package, an exceptional and temporary derogation was introduced in order to allow the production of any crops for food and feed purposes on fallow land, while maintaining the full level of the greening payment for farmers. This will enlarge the EU's production capacity in spite of the limited availability of fertile land.

The amended Hungarian regulation now ratifies these decisions in Hungary. The new regulation will enable farmers to exempt parcels sown with any crop temporarily from EFA fallow land. Based on the new regulation, in 2022, farmers can cultivate or graze livestock on fallow land. These lands are considered fallow land in ecological focus areas (EFA) and usage of plant protection agents will also be permitted.

The amended Hungarian regulation defines permanent crops as the following: A cultivated crop, differing from permanent grassland, outside of crop rotation, that occupies the land for more than five years, continuously yields produce, including tree nurseries; short rotation woody energy crops; other woody plantations; asparagus; Elephant Grass (Miscanthus), Giant cane (Arundo donax), rosinweeds (Silphium) as energy crop grasses; lavender; sage; woodland sage; herb-of-grace; Achillea; wormwood; purple coneflower; perennial fennel; common thyme; rumex; oregano; St. John’s wort; tarragon.

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Serbia Newsflash Week 15, 2022

Continuing food inflation, possibilities for biodiesel production, a new fertilizer factory doing test runs, new opportunities for international trade and promising projects in environmental protection - The week in Serbian agriculture