The Situation of Hungarian Agriculture

Hungarian agriculture has gone thru a long and difficult development since the First World War. The semi-feudal agriculture of the Horthy era between the two World Wars was followed by a land distribution after the Second World War, which created an agricultural system dominated by smallholders. However, the small farms were soon collectivized. Despite the forced collectivization, the large farms developed well and the living standard of the peasantry grew significantly. After the collapse of socialism in Hungary in 1990, political parties decided again to restructure agriculture. A new land distribution was carried out which created an agricultural system based on smallholdings. On the mostly too small, scattered holdings, the technical and technological levels, and the productivity are low. A small number of larger farms produces most of the marketed products. The only out way of this situation is farm-concentration and the cooperation of smallholders.