Assessment of the 2018-2019 Drought Situation in Hungary

Gaál, Márta – Becsákné Tornay, Enikő – Molnár, Piroska

Keywords: Palfai Drought index, irrigation systems, irrigation, Agricultural Risk Management system, Q01, Q25, Q54

Among the agricultural damages, drought has a remarkably high risk – based on the reported drought events, the affected area, and the drought mitigation payment – and due to the climate change, one of the expected phenomena in Hungary is a further increase in the frequency and length of drought periods. The present study is aimed at exploring the relationship between drought damage and irrigation, based on the 2018-2019 data of the Hungarian Agricultural Risk Management System. The results proved that irrigated areas have lower rate of drought damage than non-irrigated areas, therefore irrigation can be one of the effective drought mitigation tools. Most of the damaged areas are outside the impact areas of irrigation systems, or are within the impact area, but on non-irrigated fields. Due to eligibility criteria, slightly more than half of the members who reported drought damage received mitigation payment, the number of farmers concerned was more than 2,100 each year. For those receiving drought mitigation payments, the value of compensation payment significantly exceeded the paid mitigation contribution in both years, but in 2019 the drought compensation payment also exceeded the total contributions nationwide.
The risk management system contributes to mitigating the damage caused by extreme weather events but does not currently encourage farmers’ risk mitigation. To avoid drought damage, irrigation development would be essential, and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county should get special attention. This area suffered significant drought damage in both years, and the impact area of the surface water-based irrigation systems is small. In the near future the risk management system should be modified in order to transform it to a preventive system, which encourages farmers to use water retaining soil cultivation, proper cropping system, sustainable water management, and efficient and reasonable irrigation, thus less mitigation benefits would be paid through less drought damage.

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