Ecological cultivation of cereals in Hungary

Koltai, Judit Petra – Karácsony, Péter

Keywords: conventional, ecological, cereal production, autumn wheat, corn

During the past five years in this country cereals were produced on 70% of cultivated arable land. Arable land area producing ecologically cultivated cereals increased in the past years, but its proportion lags way behind that of conventional production. Of arable land area drawn into ecological cultivation only about 20-30% is used for producing cereals. Because of low home demand a significant proportion of ecologically cultivated crops are exported. A tendency towards export and strong competition on international markets require the production of quality crops as well as increase in the extent of pre-processing.

In future years the area of arable land used for cultivating cereals will probably not decline because of traditions, but the distribution of various cereals cultivated will almost certainly be modified according to buying up price and marketing opportunities. To avoid the recurrence of marketing difficulties it is important, in addition to the system of interventional purchasing, to increase the level of home demand by increasing animal stocks and use of cereals in the food industry.

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