The Future of the Hungarian Countryside, the Hungarian Village?

Magda, Sándor – Bujdosó, Zoltán – Szűcs, Csaba – Holló, Ervin

Keywords: countryside, economy, employment, villages, development goal, support, R11

Hungary’s accession to the European union was of strategic importance in all respects. Exploiting the opportunities created by accession and developing the rural economy are serious challenges today.
The related literature writes about the appreciation of rural society and rural areas. However, the situation in the countryside is in a severe crisis in many areas. Due to the different endowments and opportunities of the regions, the development of each rural area is significantly different. Thus, the equal opportunities are severely damaged.
The countryside has economic, ecological and social, cultural functions. This means managing natural resources wisely, protecting the living and non-living environment, preserving the potentials of biodiversity and giving rural communities a role, as well as studying and preserving folk values that are only known in the countryside.
If we want development, the economic foundations need to be strengthened. Rural development is a complex activity, the success of which depends largely on political ideas. Villages can be significantly different, as we can talk about areas with:
- farmsteads,
- small villages,
- high Roma population.
There is no progress in lagging areas without creating jobs and increasing employment. The path to social inclusion leads through school and work. But there is no work if there is not at least a minimum level of education, which requires parents to comply with the compulsory Education Act. The most effective type of institution is a small family school.
In many cases, community service helps, but only people whose children go to school should be given such an opportunity. In addition to work, public workers should complete at least primary education in order to become suitable for training tailored to need and progression. Differentiated training is required depending on the village type.
The development of population-retaining ability is of paramount importance. It takes time to create the most important economic and social conditions, housing and employment need to be resolved, and creating the conditions for a quality of life can help people stay.
It is a novel idea to restart production in the village gardens with the help and organization of MATE’s Gyöngyös Farm.
The problems in the countryside are serious, but the difficulties in the rural areas can be remedied. However, the solution requires a very complex series of actions from the government, the municipalities and the residents themselves. Success depends on creating the livability of settlements. Agricultural activity, well organized, can solve the employment of many people. Therefore, we try to assess the activities of the villages near Gyöngyös, to explore the best opportunities and to give advice on the desired activities.
The situation in the countryside has been the research topic of our volunteer research group for more than a decade, in 2016 we conducted research on a topic similar to our currently planned research. The research was organized by Magda S. - Marselek S. with the participation of local governments. The title of the research was “Joint development concept of Abasár, Karácsond, Ludas and Vécs”. This research was linked to a series of lectures that were extremely successful with a significant number of participants. This 250-page document can lay the foundation for the successful implementation of our current extensive research activity.
There is a need for change, in many cases, to increase the proportion of fruit and vegetable production, to expand irrigated areas, and to use resources sustainably. In addition to improving efficiency and competitiveness, population retention and environmental and landscape protection should also be considered important objectives.
In the course of the 2016 research, we determined the proposed agricultural production of each village on the basis of detailed data and surveys. In the case of our new research, the database is constantly expanded, so in our opinion, we can draw serious conclusions based on the database. In the current phase of our research, we have formulated the hypotheses as a proposal.

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