Changes in Hungary's agrarian sector with special reference to the northern hill region

The Hungarian agriculture and food industry has changed greatly since 1989 and this sector is now in crisis. This essay will present an overview of the most important economic and social problems which are partly the heritage of the socialist system, but which also stem from the change in the political system. It will also deal with the specific problems of the transition in the northern hill region of Nógrad where the physical conditions for agriculture are relatively unfavourable. In 1970s and 1980s state farms and cooperatives tried to compensate for the low demand for labour in agriculture by setting up subsidiary enterprises, which in many cases were the only source of local jobs. Many other people in the rural areas commuted to work in factories in the towns as industry and construction became the largest sector in the county's economy (41.3 percent in 1990 compared with 19.8 in agriculture). However, many of the former commuters are now unemployed and the cooperatives have withdrawn from subsidiary enterprises. So while an unstable situation has developed in Hungarian agriculture generally, through changes in structure and ownership, the problems faced by the less-developed agrarian regions of northern Hungary have been accentuated. Further research is needed to explore the real nature of the crisis in order to make provision for remedial action that best meets the local situation.