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• Analysis of agricultural land use of Hungary (1990–2022)

  109-126

  Ágota Lovász

  János Nagy

  Views:

  197

  In the recent decades, the structure of Hungarian agriculture has undergone significant transformation. Between 1990 and 2022, the number of farms decreased from 1.4 million to 241,000. After the political transition, large-scale collective farms were replaced by small- and medium-sized private holdings; however, later a renewed trend of concentration emerged, especially in arable crop production. By 2022, the share of arable farming rose to 66.8%, while the proportion of horticultural and plantation farms declined.
  In terms of land ownership, medium-sized farms (5–300 hectares) became dominant, while small-scale farming lost ground. The share of large farms also significantly decreased, with land use becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of mid-sized operators.
  The extent of agricultural land has continuously declined, whereas forested areas expanded. The proportion of land withdrawn from cultivation has increased, primarily due to urbanisation and infrastructure development. Kitchen gardens have almost disappeared, and vineyard, orchard, and grassland areas have also shrunk.
  Changes in cropping patterns were shaped by market conditions and climate factors: the cultivated area of cereals – especially wheat and rye – declined, while sunflower and rapeseed production expanded. The area under most vegetable and fruit crops decreased, with only a few newer crops (e.g., broccoli, zucchini) showing growth.
  The average yields of major crops generally improved due to technological advancement. However, climatic extremes – particularly the severe drought of 2022 – caused substantial declines in productivity.

• Analysis of agricultural land use of Hungary (2000–2020)

  119-137

  Péter Streb

  János Nagy

  Éva Horváth

  Adrienn Széles

  Views:

  173

  Hungarian agriculture has undergone significant changes between 2000 and 2020. Only 25% of the 965 000 farms active in agriculture in 2000 were in operation in 2020. The number of farms engaged in crop production (273 thousand) has fallen dramatically, by almost half. Within this, fewer farms were engaged in arable crops and plantations and more in horticulture.
  In 2000, there were 2883 crop production organisations and 270 736 individual holdings. In the following years, the number of economic organisations increased and the number of individual farmers decreased significantly. Both for economic organisations and individual holdings, arable crops dominate. However, the share of arable crops was higher in the case of the economic organisations, while horticulture and plantations played an important role in the case of individual farmers.
  The common farm sizes of between 1 and 5 hectares were replaced by medium farm sizes, and these holdings accounted for 57% of the total agricultural area.
  The share of arable land decreased from 83% of the country's area (7.7 million hectares) to 78.7%. The share of agricultural land decreased, the share of domestic forest increased and the share of reed and fish ponds remained substantially unchanged. The share of arable land increased, the share of orchards remained similar, while the share of kitchen gardens, vines and grassland decreased.
  The area sown to wheat and maize is stable (1–1.2 million hectares), but in some years the area sown has fallen below 1 million hectares. The importance of both crops is shown by the fact that, despite fluctuations in area in recent years, a significant proportion of the arable land in Hungary is under wheat (22–23%) and maize (24–26%). The sowing area of sunflower has more than doubled and that of rapeseed has almost tripled. The share of these two oilseeds in the arable crop sector has increased significantly, with sunflower growing from 6.6% in 2000 to 15.2% in 2020 and rapeseed from 2.6% to 7.7%. The area under fruit crops and vines has declined sharply. Vegetables have experienced a similar decline as fruit crops.
  The volume of crops increased steadily, with wheat and maize growing by 41.7% and 71.4% respectively compared with 2000. Sunflowers more than tripled and rapeseed increased almost fivefold. At the same time, weather extremes caused by climate change have become a growing problem in recent years, leading to an increase in the average yield per hectare. It ranged from 2.6 to 5.4 t/ha for wheat, 3.7 to 8.6 t/ha for maize, 1.6 to 3.0 t/ha for sunflower and 1.5 to 3.6 t/ha for rape.

• The importance of hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth.) and triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack) in biological soil conservation on Nyírség region

  33-52

  Edit Kosztyuné Krajnyák

  Béla Szabó

  Judit Csabai

  Csilla Tóth

  Katalin Irinyiné Oláh

  Sándor Vágvölgyi

  Péter Pepó

  Views:

  66

  Today, soil degradation caused by industrial crop production has reached a level that has made it clear that arable farming based on this method cannot be continued in the long term and is therefore unsustainable. Soil compaction reduced organic matter content and pH, and severe losses in soil life have combined to create a need for sustainable land use.
  Leguminous crops, whose species characteristics and agronomic values allow their incorporation into sand farming, are of great importance for the environmentally friendly utilisation of the acidic sandy soils of Nyírség. They are the essential technological elements of sustainable land use, biological soil protection and organic plant nutrition.
  Of the legume cultivars that can be grown on acidic sandy soils, the hairy vetch is of outstanding importance, which is also grown as a source of green manure, green fodder and seed, in Hungary, for more than a hundred years. Among the cereals, triticale has made inroads not only in cereal fields but also in acidic sandy soils. Thanks to the high level of triticale breeding, excellent varieties have been produced which have quickly taken the place of rye in the acid sandy soils of the Nyírség.
  Our experiment was set up in the Demonstration Garden of the University of Nyíregyháza in 2019–2020 and 2020–2021. The aim of our observation was to investigate the plant height, root length, and number of Rhizobium root-nodules on the main and lateral roots of hairy vetch and the plant height and root length of triticale in a with different sowing dates, in six replicates, at three different measurement/evaluation times.
  From our experimental results it can be stated that the morphological parameters of the hairy vetch sown at different times showed significant differences in the phenological stages we examined. Knowledge of these differences is important from an agronomic point of view because the dynamics of vegetative biomass formation can be deduced from them. In case of the sowing was in September, a clearly visible plant cover emerges on the surface of the soil, and a large number of root nodules develop on the main and lateral roots of the early adult plants. The hairy vetch, grown for green manure, protects and enriches the soil with nitrogen at this time of sowing. The formation of vegetative biomass (green mass) is also the highest at this sowing date, which is also important in the production of mixed green fodder. In the case of later sowing dates, the number of green masses, root mass and Rhizobium nodules formed until harvest also decreases.
  According to the obtained test results, the soil protection effect of triticale is already apparent in autumn, and the earliest sowing gives the best soil covering effect. The use of triticale is becoming increasingly important in sustainable soil management.

• Impact of land use practices on the ecological nitrogen balance indicators of extensive grassland vegetation

  127-143

  Krisztina Varga

  istván Csízi

  Views:

  149

  The effects of different grassland management practices on plant stand structure were investigated in an experiment at the Karcag Research Institute in 2017–2020, which was set up in 2009. The experimental grassland must comply with Natura 2000, the standards for organic grassland certification and the requirements of the horizontal agri-environmental programme. Support schemes that prioritise ecological considerations predispose to different grassland use patterns in a given grassland production area, a fact that justifies the relevance of this research. The specific objective of this research is to clarify the changes in vegetation structure under the most common grassland management practices in the Central Tisza landscape, based on Borhidi’s N balance, an ecological indicator for the meadow Solonetzic soil type typical of the region. In the experimental site with the medium meadow solonetzic soil type, the following grassland utilisation types were investigated in three replications: zero utilisation, i.e. fallow grassland, mulched grassland, where the phytomass was also not removed after stubble mowing, mowing, which meant removing the main crop once a year, and meadow utilisation, where the grass was grazed by sheep after mowing the main crop. In May of each year, a cenological survey was carried out at the time of flowering of the dominant grassland species and the plant species were classified according to Borhidi's ecological nitrogen balance. The highest grouse diversity was found in meadow grassland, 21 plant species, and the lowest in fallow grassland, 6 species. The obtained result may indicate the effect of the open layer of the unutilised phytomass in generating plant species selection in the plants forming the grassland association. It was found that, by the tenth year of the experiment, a change of control plants occurred in treatments representing mulched and meadow utilisation. The change of Festuca pseudovina to a dominant grassland component in the meadow use suggests grazing of the swards at low stubble height. Despite the accumulation of leafy phytomass, the highest coverage of nitrogen-preferring grassland constituents was not in the zero and mulched treatments left unused, but in the mowing treatments. The obtained result may suggest that Alopecurus pratensis, maintaining its position as a leader plant under mowing and being classified as a Borhidi indicator plant for nutrient-rich sites, determined the outcome. In order to clarify the reproducibility of the experimental results, due to the different soil conditions, it may be justified to carry out studies with a similar orientation in other sites and grassland associations.

• Examination of drought tolerance in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and maize (Zea mays L.)

  43-46

  Zoltán Futó

  Views:

  63

  The experiments were set up in the foil tent in Szarvas, at the Galambos experimental site belonging to the MATE KÖTI Department of Irrigation Development and Land Improvement. 10 liter white plastic buckets were used as cultivation pot. The diameter of the bucket is 27.5 cm, so the ground surface is 593.6 cm2. The wheat experiment was set up on November 4, 2020, with 3 wheat varieties, at 3 water supply levels (Field Water Capacity „FWC”; FWC40%, FWC60% and FWC80%) in 3 repetitions, in a total of 27 cultivation pots. The maize experiment was set up on April 19, 2021, with 5 maize hybrids, at 3 water supply levels, in 3 repetitions, in a total of 45 cultivation pots.
  In the soil we use, the amount of parts that can be silted is 31.6%, so it is a sandy loam physical type soil, the chemistry is weakly acidic (pHH2O 6.54), based on the total salt content soluble in water, it has a low salt content (salt%<0.1).
  In the experiment, the drought tolerance of 3 different wheat varieties (MV Nemere, GK Szilárd and Sothys) and 5 maize hybrids (GKT 4486 (Lehel), GK SILOSTAR, GKT 372, GKT 376, GKT 3385) was investigated under conditions deprived of natural precipitation.
  The following phenological parameters were measured in the experiment: Relative chlorophyll content (SPAD) with a Konica SPAD 501 instrument, Leaf area (cm2) (CI-203 Handheld Laser Leaf Area Meter), Leaf area index (LAI m2/m2), Plant height (cm), Leaf and stem weight (g), Root weight (g), Ear/Tube weight (g) and yielding parameters.
  In the experiment, all three wheat varieties responded very well to the increase in water content. Total biomass and root mass also increased, but the change from FWC40% to FWC60% was on a larger scale than from FWC60% to FWC80%.
  When examining the amount of grain yield, in the case of the lowest water supply (FWC40%), the most yield was produced by Sothys (34.15 g/cultivation pot; 5.75 t/ha), while the lowest yield was given by Mv Nemere (26.69 g/cultivation pot); 4.50 t/ha). The largest yields were obtained in the case of the best water supply. Sothys produced a very good yield (69.58 g/cultivation pot; 11.72 t/ha) with a water supply of FWC80%, and the lowest yield here was also achieved by MV Nemere (56.70 g/cultivation pot; 9.55 t/ha) with yield.
  The quality test results of the wheat showed that the quality parameters of the three investigated varieties uniformly deteriorated as a result of the increased water supply. The value of the larger amount of available water increases the yields, which negatively affected the quality.
  From the results of the maize experiment, it can be deduced that the chlorophyll content of the maize hybrids was higher with good and average water supply (FWC80% and FWC60%), and that the hybrids remained green longer and photosynthesized longer, that is, the growing time of the maize hybrids was extended with good water supply.
  In dry conditions (FWC40%), the performance of two hybrids was outstanding. Under these conditions, the maize hybrids GKT 372 and GKT 376 gave 65% more cob mass than the hybrids following them. The other important investigated property is the "irrigation reaction" of the hybrids. Based on our tests, GK SILOSTAR is a maize hybrid with a good reaction to irrigation but sensitive to drought, while GKT 376 is a maize hybrid with an excellent reaction to irrigation and also drought tolerance.

• Correlation study of NDVI and yield in maize at different phenological stages with different flight settings

  31-50

  Lehel Lengyel

  Adrienn Széles

  Csaba Bojtor

  Endre Harsányi

  János Nagy

  Árpád Illés

  Views:

  283

  In this research, the authors sought solutions to one of the most important challenges facing agriculture. The growth of the world's population and the decline and degradation of arable land pose new challenges for agriculture. Cereal crops play a key role in food production, with maize being of particular importance as it is grown worldwide. Precision farming is playing an increasingly important role in modern agriculture, making remote sensing and data analysis of paramount importance.
  The weather conditions in 2024 were unusual: spring was rainy and warm, while the summer months were exceptionally hot with an above-average number of heat days. The experiments were conducted during four different phenological stages of corn development (V5, V10, R1, and R3). Outside the growing season, we used three types of flight settings: measurements without RTK, with RTK, and with a combination of RTK and altitude tracking. During the study, three hybrids with different FAO numbers were analyzed, and the results were evaluated at five different nutrient levels in addition to the control.
  It was observed that in the early (V5 and V10) phenological phases, there was a closer correlation between NDVI values and crop yield, which can be explained by the favorable spring and early summer weather conditions of the year. The flight settings showed similar results at three measurement times, but differences appeared in the R1 phenological phase. It can be assumed that the large amount of pollen deposited on the leaves during flowering influenced the NDVI values. In addition, the creation of orthomosaics from RTK and altitude tracking images proved to be more time-consuming and, in some cases, required multiple attempts with the WebODM software used. These results provided valuable data and serve as a good starting point for further research.