At the conference, we analyzed the current situation and outline future trends with actors directly and indirectly involved in the issue of sustainable land use in agriculture. Recognised representatives of main stakeholder audiences from the science-policy-pracitce-society domains were invited for expressing their views in short plenary talks how they see their own roles in advancing the deployment of soil conservation farming practices in Hungary, and discuss possibilities of further cooperation to support farmers in the agro-ecological transition. Most of the presenters have also contributed to the Hungarian case study in UNISECO through the SNA/SES interviews and policy expert workshops.
The conference was opened by Dr. Anikó Juhász, Deputy State Secretary for Agricultural Economy, Ministry of Agriculture, co-chair of the SWG SCAR- AKIS.
Prof. Borbála Biró, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungarian expert of the EU Mission on Soil Health and Food set the scene in her talk by presenting the strategic social, economic and environmental importance of soils, EU soil strategy, EU Soil Mission.
The Hungarian regulatory environment related to soil-conservation farming and plant protection: risks and costs was presented by Gábor Várszegi, NÉBIH - National Food Chain Safety Office.
Ministry officials Éva Kinorányi and István Madarász, Department of Support Policy, Ministry of Agriculture talked about the process and status of CAP Strategic planning in Hungary, and outlined the possibilities of supporting soil-conservation farming through the new measures.
Erzsébet Sztahura from the National Chamber of Agriculture gave a talk about the role of advisors in converying knowledge about soil-conservation farming practices.
Ferenc Berend, whose farm was also taking part in the Hungarian UNISECO case study in the farm level sustainability assessments, presented his innovative no-til practices and self-financed large-scale experiments with cover crops in Somogy county.
Korinna Varga, project manager at ÖMKI, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture introduced the Hungarian participation in the EU Agroecological Partnership networking program (ALL-Ready project) and related opportunities for advancing soil-conservation farming in Hungary.
Social aspects, health and sustainable food system, the role of environmental education in raising awareness of the importance of soils was presented by Zsófia Perényi, Association of Conscious Customers.
Rozália Pecze from Syngenta Hungary introduced the role of Agricultural Value Chains in promoting Soil Conservation Farming Practices.
On behalf of the HU UNISECO team, Alfréd Szilágyi and Katalin Balázs from Geonardo Ltd presented the results of the case study in Hungary.
The short presentations were followed by a 90-minute roundtable discussion with the presenters. The questions collected during the on-line registrations, and those posed during the presentations were fed into the roundtable discussion.
The presentation materials and video records will be soon available in Hungarian on Hungarian version of the conference page.
For more details visit the conference page.