“Climate change, rotation farming, technological development, increased population and not least consumer demand all affect the direction of agricultural production and determine everyday production”, Minister of Agriculture Sándor Fazekas said at a conference organised by the National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre (NAIK) and the Institute of Agricultural Engineering (MGI), summarising the challenges faced by agriculture.
At the professional conference entitled “Environmental and Energy Challenges in Agriculture”, the Minister of Agriculture stressed: “Conscious consumer behaviour has become one of the major factors influencing agriculture and food production during the past 8-10 years, with more and more people wanting to know more and more about the foods they consume”. “In addition, politicians and the managers of the economy are also influenced by the fact that most people would like to eat foods that are free of GMOs and do not want to eat vegetables that are contaminated with pesticides, meat that has been grown in a vat or other foods that have been developed by recent technologies”, the Minister said.
“The importance of environmental protection also faces agriculture with ever growing challenges”, Mr. Fazekas stressed at the conference. “It is certainly possible to produce excellent quality foods using traditional methods in a way that also takes into account the environment and while also protecting jobs, but the achievements of the modern age and new technological developments can and must be applied”, the Minister said. “For instance the advantages presented by precision farming, digitalisation and IT must be built into the process of agricultural production so they can assist production and make farming easier”, he continued.
“The most important element of the Digital Success Programme is that it allows access to as many people as possible in the interests of facilitating a more cost-effective production, and that it enables young people to also find a career in agriculture”, the Minister said.
The Minister of Agriculture’s speech was followed by various lectures on the challenges and tasks awaiting us within the field of environmental and climate protection, development trends and technological opportunities in agriculture-based energy production, and possible ways of demonstrating environmentally friendly agricultural production in practice.
(Ministry of Agriculture Press Office)
