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  • Challenges – the impact of climate change on the nutritional management of Hungarian orchards
    323-334
    Views:
    207

    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.

  • Local strategical tasks in the Hungarian fruit production with respect to the global economic and climatic changes
    39-34
    Views:
    91

    After identifying the problems, we have determined the local tasks which Hungarian fruit growing has to accomplish to remain competitive despite global market pressures and global climate change.
    Fruit growing in the Great Plain is of determining importance in Hungary as 75% of fruit originates from the Great Plain. Therefore, the maintenance of the competitiveness of fruit growing on the Great Plain is an important economic interest which is a difficult task to resolve, because the global economic pressure against local resources and climate change affect the fruit growers sensitively. 
    In Hungarian fruit production, it is necessary to select/develop with great care the appropriate location, training system and methods of emergency technology which have to be harmonised.

  • The factors affecting the proliferation of mould fungi and mycotoxin production during the storage of wheat and the identification methods of the appearing branches
    129-133
    Views:
    119

    Nowadays, it is often suggested that, we should eat products made with whole grain cereals, despite of the fact that it raises the risk of consuming wheat products infected by mold and their toxins originated from the plough-lands and the stocks.
    Two third of the cultivated fields in Hungary are planted with cereals. The most alarming problem for food and feed security is caused by the Fusarium species. The greatest problem of all is caused by the mycotoxins. When they get into the food chain they can be a serious threat to public health. In addition, we have to face up to the problem of the effects of global warming that influence the growth of microbial infections in different ways.
    In this article we tried to summarize the effect of climate change on molds, the factors which have effect on growing and mycotoxin producing of molds and the identification methods of molds.

  • The effect of rising concentration of atmospheric carbone dioxide on crop production
    81-84
    Views:
    111

    In the atmosphere, the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are rising in gradually increasing pace since the Industrial Revolution. The rising concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) contributes to global warming, and the changes affect to both the precipitation and the evaporation quantity. Moreover, the concentration of carbon dioxide directly affects the productivity and physiology of plants. The effect of temperature changes on plants is still controversial, although studies have been widely conducted. The C4-type plants react better in this respect than the C3-type plants. However, the C3-type plants respond more richer for the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide and climate change.

  • Mycotoxin contamination in maize triggered by arthropod pests and the related protection possibilities
    59-64
    Views:
    140

    Mycotoxin contamination in harvested maize has increased in the last decades, which can be unequivocally back to the plant health troubles caused by global warming. The increasing of wounds in maize crops was occurred by climate change both on direct (hailstorm) and indirect
    (newly appeared pests) ways. In additional, the settling phytopathogenic microfungi on these plant wounds inflict serious human and animal health problems.
    The changing of Hungarian arthropod pests assemblages stand in the background of this dangerous nuisance complex. The spreading of European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis Hbn.) bivoltine ecotype as well as the newly appeared adventive species [cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera Hbn.), western corn rootworm (Diabrotica v. virgifera LeConte), fourspotted-sapbeetle (Glischrochilus quadrisignatus Say)] in Hungary can be responsible for this situation. In total, all technological elements, which obstruct the damage of these chewing mouthparts pests, as well as moderate the mechanical damage of maize, can be contribute to the reduction of both these phytopathogens injuries and mycotoxin contaminations.

  • Agricultural land use and food safety
    55-60
    Views:
    138

    The world’s food production needs to be doubled in order to cover the need of the population by 2050 even if it exceeds 9 billion. The output of agriculture is expected to increase by 1.7% every year until 2020 (OECD, FAO 2011) which is a major decrease in comparison with the average 2.6% increase of the previous decade. At the same time, the meat, dairy, sugar and vegetable oil consumption is likely to increase by 2020 to a higher extent than so far. Due to the increasing food prices, the amount of starving people will increase and food consumption will decrease – especially in developing countries – as people will be able to buy less and only cheaper food products. Also, obesity may become a more severe problem and the inequality of the population’s health status could increase.

    One of the most important elements of adapting to global climate change is food safety; therefore, it is especially important to breed new biological bases and to introduce production systems which contribute to adapting to changed circumstances.

  • Long-term effect of soil management on the carbon-dioxide emission of the soil
    515-527
    Views:
    81

    CO2 emission from soils is one of the most important elements of the global carbon cycle, thus it has crucial rule in climate change. Each soil cultivation operation intervenes in the microbiological life of the soil, hence tillage is a factor through that the processes taking place in soil can be controlled. During the last decades, the organic material content of agricultural soils decreased to the half due to the intensive management resulting in the degradation of natural soil fertility. While intensive, plough-based tillage can cause soil degradation and erosion, the physical, chemical and biological status of the soil can be significantly improved through the application of conservation tillage methods. The results of long-term experiments prove that soil protective tillage enhances the  enrichment of organic matter in the top layer of the soil. In order to reveal the role of tillage systems in CO2 emission from the soil,  regular measurements were carried out in the plots with conventional and reduced tillage of the soil cultivation experiment of Research Institute of Karcag. Anagas CD 98 and Gas Alert Micro 5w infrared gas analysers were used to measure CO2-concentrations, and a specially developed method (consisting of a frame and a bowl) was applied to delimitate the measuring area. Most of the  measurements were done on stubbles after harvest in order to exclude root respiration. The weather conditions of the examined 10 years were very changeable providing a good chance to compare them to each other. We found the tillage operations resulting in  higher emission values in both tillage systems. On stubbles higher and more even emission was characteristic to reduced tillage due to the lower degree of soil disturbance and higher soil moisture content.

  • The European Research Area: in quest of the Lisbon goals
    73-79
    Views:
    68

    strong educational and scientific knowledge basie is one of Europe's traditional key assets that has made it possible for our continent to become world class in several research fields. Despite these great achievements, the position of the European research and technological development (RTD) potential is currently being challenged by a rapidly changing global competition, including the two main rivals, the US and Japan. The European Union (EU) is behind these countries as regards research and innovation output. Moreover, European research is faced with the
    implications of globalisation of markets and industries, digitalisation and new technologies, as well as a need to address societal issues such as an ageing population or climate change.
    At the same time, the European Union (EU) is facing the uneven distribution of RTD capacities and excellence within its own borders, especially the EU12 countries are lagging behind in this
    respect.
    In order to meet this twofold challenge the EU has to step up its efforts for the creation of a legitimate "European Research Area" that will make the EU more competitive on the international scene, and also encourage the less developed EU member states to invest more and better into research and innovation.

  • Challenges and agroecological approaches in crop production
    75-89
    Views:
    164

    Never has the need been greater for an ecosystem approach to agriculture. As our global population exceeds 9 billion in the next 30 years, with a concomitant demand for agricultural products, ever more pressure will be placed on our agricultural systems. Meanwhile, climate change is altering the ecological settings in which agriculture is practiced, demanding adaptation. Knowledge generated by long-term research will help to address one of the grand challenges of our time: how to meet sustainably the growing world demand for agricultural products – in a way that minimizes environmental harm and enhances the delivery of a diverse array of ecosystem services.