The Hungarian agricultural risk management system deployed in the past years is exemplary also at European level, Minister of State for Agriculture Zsolt Feldman said in Pozsony (Bratislava) at a conference on agricultural risk management attended by the Slovak and Czech Ministers of Agriculture, the Polish Deputy Minister of Agriculture and European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan.

Agricultural production is the economic sector most exposed to various natural and market risks, so risk management at both producer and Community level is of utmost importance.

At the conference, Zsolt Feldman reported on Hungarian experience do date with relation to agricultural risk management and on relevant future development plans. In Hungary, the agricultural damage mitigation system, the agricultural insurance premium subsidy system and national freeze damage prevention operate in a concerted and complementary manner, and represent the main pillars of the risk management arsenal. They are supplemented by the individual producers’ risk prevention funding sources available under the Rural Development Program.

The damage mitigation system renewed in 2012 and covering a broad array of damage types has 74 000 producer members working on almost 3,7 million hectares under agricultural cultivation. A damage mitigation fund generated by the payments of producers and the state, annually totalling almost HUF 26 billion, will be available by the beginning of next year to manage the damage incurred this year. The system of agricultural insurance premium subsidy of maximum 65%, increasingly popular among producers, was also introduced in 2012 by the government. In 2018, its annual budget rose to HUF 5 billion. The freeze damage prevention system, of national coverage and unique in the EU, began operation in May 2018, under the coordination of the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture. In future, instruments promoting irrigation development and the treatment of price fluctuations due to market developments will provide options for further risk mitigation.

Phil Hogan confirmed at the conference that he is counting on Hungary’s active cooperation in the development of the new CAP regulations applicable to agricultural risk management instruments.

(Ministry of Agriculture Press Office)