An examination of the Homokhátság detached farming region

Farkas, Jenõ Zsolt – Kovács, András Donát

Keywords: periphery settlement model, internal peripheries, environmental conflicts, social problems, farming on detached farms

The environmental conflicts of detached farming regions cannot be examined purely from the classic, infrastructural environmental conservation viewpoint. Detached farms are a structural and functional component of the complex systems of regions and settlement environments, whose sustainability depends on a number of factors. The changes occurring in detached farming conditions need to be placed in a new light, in the interests of improving current conditions and the farms’ future protection. The preservation of the Homokhátság farming world is a significant task (and for thousands of Alföld families a decisive one) in the interests of maintaining both traditional farming models and unique regional values. Support for specific Hungarian settlement models and assistance to communities living in periphery areas is important for the whole of society, as it is those living on farms who maintain, protect and care for our environment. Their disappearance would also mean an end to most of the people who feel a responsibility towards the region and nurture it. Therefore, the message to the 21st century from the sand prairie is: maintain the region together with the people living in it and its almost unique natural world. Traditional farming and the characteristic farm lifestyle played a significant part in the development of the Kiskunság’s current regional scenery. Their preservation is essential to the protection of natural assets.

In seeking the environmental-strategic break-out points affecting the area, priority must be given to comprehensive modernisation of technological infrastructure, water management and the development of outlying networks (roads, gas, telephone, drainage), as well as communal waste processing. To this end, the level of preparedness and knowledge amongst the population and local governments that is, in the human sphere, must be improved. Local governments must participate in EU and national programmes, they must fully utilise the offered support assistance. A further prerequisite of effective action is local and regional cooperation, because by taking into account individual settlements’ assets and restrictions, environmental management tasks can be divided between them.

Full article