Search

Published After
Published Before

Search Results

  • Mitigation and adaptation measures in the hungarian rural development programme
    245-250
    Views:
    82

    In the Hungarian Rural Development Programme (RDP) climate change adaptation is addressed through the measures in Axis 1, 2, 3 and 4. Under Axis 1 farmers can receive support for farm modernisation that will help them adapt to climate change. The processing industry will also be able to use the available resources for capital expenditure on buildings and new equipment. Axis 2 and especially the soil and water package within the agrienvironmental
    measure aim to support production methods, which protect soil quality and will help adaptation to climate change. Measures of Axis 3, such as basic services for the economy and rural population, village renewal and development will provide local communities the opportunity to identify actions that can be undertaken to deal with the effects of climate change. On the other hand, the extension of forest resources contributes to climate change mitigation and enhances carbon sequestration. New methods have been elaborated to the sustainable regional water management, irrigation, water regulation, defence against internal water, and soil protection established. Water management contributes to the balance of water quantity on one side, but also to mitigating the climate change on the other.

  • Challenges – the impact of climate change on the nutritional management of Hungarian orchards
    323-334
    Views:
    262

    The agricultural sector is increasingly exposed to both environmental and economic risks due to the phenomena of climate change and climate variability. Fruit growth and productivity are adversely affected by nature’s wrath in the form of various abiotic stress factors. Climate change and extreme climatic events are predicted to increase in intensity, frequency, and geographic extent as a consequence of global climate change. It is no doubt that frequency of unexpected climatic events and their growing rate result in an increasing amount of problems for fruit growers globally. Today, climate change impacts are the most serious problems for Hungarian fruit growers as well. It can be stated that the nutrient demand of fruit trees can be supplied only under even worse conditions.

    Therefore, it is so important to know and apply adaptation and mitigation strategies in horticulture to improve fruit quality and yield. In the last ten years, at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management at University of Debrecen expanded studies have been made to prove the importance of groundcover management in horticultural applications. In this mini review paper, is presented, how the university's researches contributed to the expansion of knowledge of preservation of soil moisture and what advice we can provide for fruit growers to face the challenges of climate change.

  • Preparatory study for carbon sequestration modelling of agroforestry systems in Hungary: The assessment of the yield class distribution of windbreaks
    73-78
    Views:
    83

    The escalating carbon dioxide emissions leading to global climate change are acknowledged as a paramount environmental challenge in the twenty-first century. The significance of land use systems in stabilising carbon dioxide levels and enhancing carbon sink potential has gained noteworthy attention from both the scientific and political communities. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasises that agroforestry systems present vital prospects for synergising climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, offering substantial technical mitigation potential. Windbreaks are well-known agroforestry systems in Hungary and form an important part of agricultural landscapes. The improved agroforestry subsidy system in our country makes it relevant to model the carbon sequestration potential of windbreaks. In the framework of the ForestLab project we plan to develop a carbon sequestration model specific for Hungarian agroforestry systems. In this study, as a preparatory step of the model development, we assessed the yield class distribution of Hungarian windbreaks by tree species group and identified variables that had significant effect on yield class based on the data of the National Forestry Database. Our results show that among the examined effects the most important predictor of the yield class of windbreaks was the tree species group, followed by the thickness of the productive soil layer and the hydrology of the site.

  • A new model for predicting carbon storage dynamics and emissions related to the waste management of wood products: introduction of the HWP-RIAL model
    75-81
    Views:
    151

    The ability of wood products to store carbon allows for their significant contribution to the climate mitigation efforts and the emission reduction commitments set by the EU. In order to optimise the carbon storage capacity of wood products, it is important to take climate mitigation aspects into consideration as much as possible during their production, use and waste management. The aim of this study was to quantify the effects of product development, recycling, and waste management technologies on carbon storage and emissions. In the frame of the ForestLab project, a new model and decision support tool was developed, which is able to predict the duration of carbon storage of wood products and the evolution of emissions from them. The developed HWP-RIAL model (Harvested Wood Product Recycling, Incineration And Landfill model) uses the methodology of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to calculate emissions, which is also used in the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory report. It combines the IPCC waste model with equations describing the carbon storage and emissions of wood products, and the model is also supplemented with a self-developed recycling and waste routing module. This paper provides insight into the operation of the model by following the life cycle of 200,000 m3 particle board.

  • New challenges in soil management
    91-92
    Views:
    227
    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.