The number of farms was down by 19% to 196 thousand in Hungary from 2020, and the sizes of farms and the average numbers of animals increased. In addition to the ageing of the farming community, the proportion of the managers of farms with full agricultural training rose. There was no serious change in the size and structure of the utilised agricultural area, however, the size of irrigable areas grew. The cattle, pig and sheep populations became smaller and the poultry population larger on 1 June 2023 compared to one year earlier.

Number of farms goes on decreasing

196 thousand farms were operating in Hungary on 1 June 2023 according to preliminary data, 45 thousand (19%) fewer than three years earlier. The decrease in the number of farms accelerated in the past period, a total decline of 100 thousand being recorded compared to ten years earlier. First of all, farms utilising smaller agricultural area and keeping a few animals gave up their agricultural activity in the last years, too, as a result of which the sizes of farms and the average numbers of animals went on increasing.

Crop producers and animal producers both faced several, even earlier unexperienced difficulties in the past few years. Crop producers were hit in the last period by high energy prices, low purchase prices appearing owing to the crisis in the cereal market, furthermore, revenues missing because of cereals having remained in granaries in many cases, as well as the severe drought. Animal diseases, recurring from time to time, and increased animal feed and energy costs placed animal keepers in an even more difficult situation than earlier on. The proportion of mixed farms was low, merely 7.8%, so the majority of animal keepers needed to cover their livestock’s needs for animal feed from outside the farm. The proportion of crop specialist farms was already 73% in 2023, 10 percentage points higher than three years earlier, while the proportion of specialist livestock farms went on diminishing; they accounted for no more than 14% of all farms. The proportion of farms that cannot be classified into the previous categories was 5.2%; these were farms which, for example, possessed unutilised grassland areas eligible for support, had fallow land, or may have solely performed services.

Ageing farming community, growing level of education

Farm managers went on ageing in the past three years. The proportion of 65-year-old and older managers was up from 35% in 2020 to 37%. Both of the categories of 45 to 54-year-olds and 55 to 64-year-olds accounted for 23% of managers. The proportion of the former age group continuously increased and that of the latter went down in the last ten years. The proportion of farmers aged under 35 years was 4.9%, just as in 2020.

Seven of ten managers were males. The proportion of males was 73–75% in the 25 to 64-year-old age groups, 80% for managers aged under 25 years and 67% in the 65-year-old and older age category.

The proportion of farm managers managing the farm with practical agricultural experience continuously decreased from 2010. In 2023, their proportion was only 55%, but even so more than 100 thousand farms were managed with practical agricultural experience. In parallel to the continuous decrease in the number of farms, the proportion of farmers with full agricultural training rose, one in nine managers belonging to this category in 2023. This change was in line with the rise in the proportion of crop specialist farms, since farmers with full agricultural training represent a higher part in the case of this activity than among specialist livestock farms. The proportion of managers with basic agricultural training went up as well; their share exceeded 34% in 2023, being over twice as high as the proportion in 2010.

The visions of farm managers, i.e. the plans concerning their farms provide useful information in connection with policy planning. 55% of managers did not express concretely their views on this question in 2023. 12% of farm managers planned to manage their farm for at most 5 more years, which proportion was 18% back three years earlier. The proportion of those who wished to manage their farm for 6–10 years diminished to 8.7%. 24% of farm managers will manage their farm for over 10 more years according to their plans, their proportion being 2 percentage points lower than three years earlier when examining all the managers, however, the proportion of these relatively long-time planners somewhat increasing in the case of responding managers.

55% of area of Hungary is utilised agricultural area

The utilised agricultural area made up 55% of the area of Hungary, which proportion had a notable place even among EU member states. No serious change occurred in the structure of utilised agricultural area in the last years, so 82% of that continued to belong to the land use category of arable land (4.2 million hectares) and 16% to that of grassland (793 thousand hectares). There was a steady and slow rise in both utilised arable land and grassland areas in the past years. The area of fruit plantations exceeded 83 thousand hectares this year, while that of vineyards remained somewhat below 60 thousand hectares. The utilised agricultural area of Hungary surpassed 5.1 million hectares in 2023, which was practically the same as a year earlier.

In the crop structure of arable land areas, the proportion of cereals was up from the value of 58% in 2020 to 60%, and the second most typical group was that of industrial crops, with a proportion of 23%. The proportion of forage plants was 8.3%, about the same as three years earlier, while the proportion of unsown arable land was reduced from 2.7% to 1.9% by 2023.

The sown area of cereals continuously rose in the past years, exceeding 2.5 million hectares in 2023. The sown area of winter wheat grew substantially compared to earlier years and was above one million hectares again in 2023, which was a rise of nearly 90 thousand hectares (9.5%) compared to one year earlier. The sown area of winter barley increased at an even higher rate, by 28%, so it was produced on more than 400 thousand hectares in 2023. As a consequence of a significant crop failure caused by the drought in the last year and of market developments, the sown area of maize was cut substantially, by nearly 20%, and remained below 800 thousand hectares.

The importance of industrial crops was unchanged in the past years; they were produced on a total 967 thousand hectares in 2023. Sunflower, with the largest area among them, was produced on 677 thousand hectares, which was 25 thousand hectares less than last year.

Sweet corn and green peas make up 63% of vegetable area

The total productive area of vegetables and strawberry went down between 2020 and 2022, however, it increased by nearly 1.4 thousand hectares to 80 thousand hectares in 2023 compared to the previous year. The distribution of the sown area of vegetables was practically unchanged over the past few years, and sweet corn (31.9 thousand hectares) and green peas (18.4 thousand hectares) were sown on the largest areas in 2023, too, which made up 63% of the total vegetable area. Fennel continued to be the third most significant crop with its area of 7.5 thousand hectares.

Apple produced on 29% of area of orchards

83 thousand hectares, 1.6% of the utilised agricultural area belonged to the land use category of orchards, which proportion was practically unchanged in the past period. The area of apple, the fruit species with the largest area in Hungary, was 23.7 thousand hectares, accounting for 29% of the total area of orchards. The area of sour cherry somewhat diminished compared to 2022, the area of 13.5 thousand hectares was 16% of the total area of orchards. The area of walnut continuously increased in the last few years, exceeding as many as 10.5 thousand hectares in 2023. The areas of plum (7.2 thousand hectares), elderberry (6.6 thousand hectares) and apricot (6.2 thousand hectares) also grew from 2022. However, the area of peach was further reduced; it was only 2.3 thousand hectares in 2023.

Ageing fruit plantations draw an unfavourable picture of the prospects of the sector. It is more difficult to efficiently farm these plantations, in addition, the now stagnating area size may even start to decrease in the lack of new planting. 53% of the area of apple plantations was 15 years old and older, which value already exceeded 50% at the time of the 2017 survey of orchards, too. By contrast, over 2 thousand hectares (9.4%) of the apple area were newly planted, i.e. less than 5 years old. In the case of pear plantations, the area planted before 2009 made up nearly 58% of the total area, in addition to which the size of the area planted in the past five years was 9.3%. As for apricot, 5 to 14-year-old areas represented more than 54%, the largest proportion, but over one thousand hectares were less than 5 years old in the case of this species as well. The proportion of these areas was the highest for apricot out of fruit plantations. The proportion of the area of 15-year-old and older peach plantations was 45% and that of ones aged under 5 years 11%. The area of pear plantations aged the most and that of apricot plantations became the youngest over the last six years.

Farm structure in transition

In 2023, 7.4 % of farms did not utilise any agricultural area and 15% cultivated an area of below 1 hectare. Areas of 1–5 hectares continued to be the most typical, this farm size was typical of one-third of farms. One-fifth of the total utilised agricultural area belonged to users of 200–500 hectares of land, though these farms made up only 1.9% of the total number of farms. One of the reasons for the decrease in the number of farms between 2020 and 2023 was that the number of cultivators of at most one hectare of area went down to the half in this period, which affected 29 thousand farms. The number of the farms that did not utilise any agricultural area at all became more than 40% lower. In the last three years, there were positive shifts in the case of both the number of farms and the utilised area in each of the categories of between 10 and 1,000 hectares. The most significant growth was observed in the category of between 100 and 200 hectares, where both the number of farms and the size of area became 19% larger compared to 2020. The number of farms cultivating an area larger than 1,000 hectares as well as the size of the area utilised by them decreased by 20% over three years.

Between 2020 and 2023, the average sizes of farms were up in all land use categories except for stagnating grassland areas, of 14.7 hectares on average. In 2023, the average size of agricultural area exceeded 28 hectares, which was double that in 2010 and also 5.3 hectares larger than 3 years earlier. The average size of arable land areas was nearly 30 hectares, while that of orchards 3.4 hectares and the average size of vineyards 2.3 hectares. From 2020, the median value of the size of farms rose for all land use categories except vineyards: it increased from 2.6 to 4.3 hectares in the case of the utilised agricultural area, from 4.0 to 5.1 hectares for arable land, from 0.5 to 0.8 hectare in the case of orchards and from 2.6 to 3.0 hectares for grassland areas, while it remained 0.3 hectare for vineyards.

Size of agricultural area utilised by farm managers aged over 65 years grows

The agricultural area utilised by farms headed by 65-year-old and older managers continuously grew from 2010, their proportion being already 29% in 2023. The size of the area utilised by these farms approximated 1.5 million hectares, which was more than double that ten years earlier. The share of the area utilised by young farm managers, aged under 40 years, was only 11% of the total area. Over 3 million hectares, 60% of the area, were utilised by managers belonging to the 40 to 64-year-old age group.

The agricultural area was utilised nearly to the same extent, of 41% and 38%, by the farm managers with basic agricultural training and those with full agricultural training, respectively. The size of the utilised agricultural area utilised by farm managers with full agricultural training was reduced by a total 6.1 percentage points from 2010; it was 1.9 million hectares in 2023. The size of the area utilised by farm managers with basic agricultural training approximated 2.1 million hectares, and its proportion was 41% of the total area. The area utilised by managers with practical agricultural experience was 1.1 million hectares, its proportion decreasing from 25% ten years earlier to 21%.

Size of irrigable area substantially increases in past three years

Consistently with the drought becoming more and more frequent, lasting longer and longer and covering a larger and larger area, an increasing emphasis is put on the question of irrigation, too. The number of irrigation communities continuously grew, in addition, investment activity rose as well, the results of which were already seen as early as in 2023. In that year, 5.0% of the agricultural area, 258 thousand hectares were irrigable, while 3.0% of the area, 153 thousand hectares were irrigated between June 2022 and June 2023. There were significant changes in the case of both indicators in the last three years: the size of the irrigable area increased by over 100 thousand hectares and that of the irrigated area by 41 thousand hectares. Sprinkler irrigation was typical on 75%, surface irrigation on 14%, trickle irrigation on 9.7% and subsurface irrigation, the most efficient one in terms of evaporative loss, on merely 1.0% of the irrigated agricultural area in 2023.

Decreasing livestock, fewer animal keepers

Out of major agricultural livestock populations, the cattle, pig, sheep and turkey populations were smaller and the chicken, goose and duck populations larger on 1 June 2023 than a year earlier. Compared to December 2022, the numbers of sheep and chickens were up, cattle numbers somewhat decreased and the number of pigs was practically unchanged. The cattle population was 876 thousand, 9 thousand fewer than in December 2022 and 27 thousand fewer than one year earlier. The cattle population, uniquely at European level, rose every year between 2010 and 2020, however, diminished from 2020. In parallel to the decrease in the cattle population, the number of keepers became smaller, too, cattle being kept on about 14 thousand farms in the middle of 2023. The average size of the cattle population was up from 56 heads in 2020 to 63. The number of pigs remained below 2.6 million, which was practically the same as half a year earlier and 155 thousand fewer than in June 2022. The number of pig keepers went on decreasing as well, it was 24.7 thousand on 1 June 2023. The trend that smaller farms – keeping a few pigs – finish their activity continued. As an effect of all these, the average pig population of pig-keeping farms was up from 60 heads in 2020 to 104 heads. The number of chickens was 34.5 million, 5.4 million more than half a year earlier and 4.7 million more than in June 2022. 2.1 million geese, 2.7 million ducks and 2.5 million turkeys were kept on farms in Hungary on 1 June 2023. The sheep population was 922 thousand, which was a growth of 50 thousand from December 2022, however, the size of the sheep population was somewhat lower than the value in the middle of 2022. The number of sheep keepers was 12.0 thousand, so the average number of sheep per farm was 77 heads.

Nearly 22% of the managers of farms keeping cattle came from the 65-year-old and older age category. The same proportion was 17% for pig keepers and 23% for sheep keepers. The largest change in this age category from 2010 was recorded for cattle keepers: the number of the animals kept by them tripled in this period; it was 190 thousand in 2023. In the case of cattle, pigs and sheep alike, the number of the animals kept by farm managers aged under 40 years fell. When examining the proportions, the largest decrease was observed for pigs. One in five pigs were kept by young holders back in 2010 compared with only one in ten in 2023. The number of pigs raised by this age category went down by nearly 400 thousand to 254 thousand over 13 years. The proportion of the animals kept by the 40 to 64-year-old age category decreased in the case of cattle and sheep (66% and 65%, respectively) and augmented for pigs (73%) within the total number of the respective animals from 2010.

Looking at the qualifications of the managers of farms keeping animals, significant differences were seen. One of the reasons for this was that 59% and 83% of the cattle and pig populations, respectively, were kept by agricultural enterprises, among the managers of which the proportion of those with at least basic agricultural training was relatively high. By contrast, 89% of the sheep population was kept by private farms, among which the farm managers with practical agricultural experience represented a relatively high proportion. The animal populations of farm managers with full agricultural training made up 45% of the total number of animals in the case of cattle keepers, 69% for pig keepers and merely 17% for sheep keepers. This proportion rose relatively substantially for pig keepers and somewhat for sheep keepers, however, went down for cattle keepers from 2010. The animal populations of farm managers keeping animals with practical agricultural experience decreased in the case of all the three animal species.

Growing stock of tractors

Agricultural machines were used on 83% of farms in the year to 1 June 2023. The most widely used were tractors, 40% of farms possessing one and merely 7.3% having a combine harvester. Back in 2013, 30% of farms used their own tractors, a total of 121 thousand. Farms owned already 142 thousand tractors in 2023, which was 21 thousand (17%) more than ten years earlier. The growth occurred among tractors with larger performance. The number of tractors with a performance of 100 kW or more nearly doubled, while the number of those with a performance of less than 40 kW was down by 24% compared to 2013. One in four farms cultivating less than 5 hectares of agricultural area used their own tractors, while farms utilising more than 100 hectares were much better equipped with machines: 79% of them possessed tractors and 75% tillage machines, and 43% harvested crops with their own combine harvesters.

Management data collected on paper by seven in ten farms

The data generated in the course of management were collected on paper in 69% of farms in 2023, while book-keepers (also) handled these in 19% of them. 13% of farms used general software (Excel or Access) and only a small part, merely 2.0% of them some special software for this purpose. Management information systems (software for keeping records, company management and/or administration software, and decision support software, via either own computer or an on-line system) were applied in 5.9% of farms, which proportion was 8.6% in the case of young farmers, aged under 40 years, 6.8% in the 40 to 64-year-old age category and 3.8% in the 65-year-old and older age group. One in five farms did not collect in any way the data generated in the course of management.

Precision farming in transition

There was a restructuring in the area of the application of precision tools and techniques from 2020. The proportion of farms making a plant condition survey with their own tools or using it as a service decreased from 5.6% in 2020 to 2.2%, and the use of drones from 1.4% to 0.9%, first of all owing to related regulations becoming stricter. The proportion of the application of site-specific operations rose from 2.8% to 4.8% over three years. Even out of these, higher-than-average proportions were recorded for ensuring this way nutrient application (3.8%), sowing and planting (3.5%), plant protection (3.7%) and weeding. The proportion of guided/automatic steering was up from 4.0% to 5.3% from 2020.

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