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• New challenges in soil management

  91-92

  Márta Birkás

  Views:

  362

  Soil management represents two important tasks that are harmonization of the soil protection with demands of the crop to be grown on the given land under prevailing farming condition. Further goals are to preserve and/or develop the soil physical, biological and chemical condition and to avoid the unfavourable changes of the soil biological activity and the soil structure. Classical authors emphasised the importance of creating proper seedbed for plants. In the physical approach, tillage was believed to play an important role in controlling soil processes. Consequently, the period of several centuries dominated by this approach is referred to as the era of crop-oriented tillage (Birkás et al., 2017). The overestimation of the importance of crop requirements resulted in damaging the soils, which inevitably led to turn to the soil-focused tillage. Since the first years of climate change, as the new trends have raised concern, tillage must be turned into a climate-focused effort with the aim of reducing climate-induced stresses through improving soil quality.

  The development of soil management has always been determined by the economical background. At the same time, deteriorating site conditions have contributed to the conception of new tillage trends by forcing producers to find new solutions (e.g. dry farming theory in the past or adaptable tillage theory nowadays). Győrffy (2009) recited the most important keywords were listed in 2001 and that seemed to be important in the future of crop production. These keywords (endeavours) were as follows:

  − Biofarming, organic farming, alternative farming, biodynamic farming, low input sustainable agriculture;

  − Mid-tech farming, sustainable agriculture, soil conservation farming, no till farming, environmentally sound, environmentally friendly, diversity farming;

  − Crop production system, integrated pest management, integrated farming, high-tech farming;

  − Site specific production, site-specific technology, spatial variable technology, satellite farming;

  − Precision farming.

  Győrffy’s prognosis proved to be realistic and the efforts mentioned above have mostly been implemented. New challenges have also appeared in soil management in relation to the last decades. The most important endeavours for the future are:

  1) Preserving climate-induced stresses endangering soils.

  2) Turn to use climate mitigation soil tillage and crop production systems.

  3) Applying soil management methods are adaptable to the different soil moisture content (over dried or wet may be quite common).

  4) Use effectual water conservation tillage.

  5) Use soil condition specific tillage depth and method.

  6) Adapting the water and soil conservation methods in irrigation.

  7) Preserving and improving soil organic matter content by tillage and crop production systems.

  8) Considering that stubble residues are matter for soil protection, humus source and earthworm’ feed.

  9) Site-specific adoption of green manure and cover crops.

  10) Applying site-adopted (precision) fertilization and crop protection. Considering the development in agriculture, new endeavours will occur before long.

• Relationships of Fruit Production and Regional Development in the Northern Great Plain Region

  181-187

  Zsolt Gergely Harsányi

  Endre Harsányi

  János Attila Nagy

  Views:

  268

  The role of retaining population in agriculture is stronger and more significant in the long run in the North Great Plain Region compared to other regions. The region has a significant processing industry along with a good basis for producing raw materials, developed food processing capicity and high quality agricultural products typical of the region. The GDP in agriculture, forestry and game management is somewhat higher than the national average.
  Variety is of cardinal importance when establishing the quality of horticultural products and determining the product value. The Hungarian breeding results of apple, quince, apricot, cherry, raspberry, red and black currant are promising.
  The regulation system of EU the vegetable and fruit market is based on Retail Cooperatives Producers. With the establishment of national vegetable- and fruit production and retail organizations, the market regulation, production and quality development issues of the sector can be handled and solved. Reaching EU standards in fruit production can only be achieved with up-to-date plantation systems and breed selection. A key issue in development is establishing the required financial resources for investments and updating production. In order to reach these standards, significant state subsidies and good credit conditions are needed. By solving these tasks, the sector is expected to become self-financed without government help.
  The pursuit of safer production, improving quality and increasing yields require the establishment of up-to-date irrigation systems. The improvement of family farms, motivating land concentration is necessary for increasing average size of plants. Establishing the above mentioned conditions is important since the vegetable-fruit sector is of great significance in the employment of rurally based population, improving their living conditions and executing rural development programs.