More and more people are choosing rural life, they see the possibility of prosperity in it - said Minister of Agriculture István Nagy at the Századvég Konjunktúrakutató Zrt. Rural Conference 2021 event on Thursday in Budapest.
He added that last year more than 16,000 people moved from the capital and 2,600 from other cities, while the number of people living in villages increased by 19,000. These numbers also prove that people are increasingly longing for a way of life closer to nature, he said, emphasizing: the Hungarian countryside forms the backbone of Hungary, and domestic agriculture and rural development are not only a matter for those living in the countryside. It is important for everyone, as agriculture is a basic production sector, with significant employment and exports.
He called it important to live in the countryside, to provide livelihood and security. The task of the ministry is to help the regions catch up and to improve the quality of life of rural people. In order to preserve the competitiveness of rural economies, it is essential to fight against youth unemployment, to ensure adequate remuneration of employees and adequate rural infrastructure in rural areas, he listed. During the last two government cycles, the agriculture and food industry developed spectacularly, and there are further reserves, he added, noting that the Hungarian countryside is undeniably on the rise.
He emphasized that, according to the government's decision, three times more funds will be available for rural development in the next period. In one year, as many resources can be spent on rural development as in the previous seven years in total. The Ministry of Agriculture's committed goal is to provide the economy and communities of rural areas, Hungarian agriculture and the food industry with the opportunity for development on a historic scale with the Renewable Countryside, Renewable Agriculture program. In previous periods, the central budget supplemented the resources coming from the European Union by 17.5 percent, but now the historic decision has been made that the government will supplement it by 80 percent, he said. This means that while the rural development budget used to be HUF 1,500 billion, it is now HUF 4,265 billion, i.e. practically triple. This gives Hungarian agricultural policy and rural development room for maneuver that was previously unimaginable. The Renewable countryside, renewable agriculture program is also an important milestone, a "leg to strengthen the countryside" of the government measures taken, which are consistently implemented point by point, he pointed out. He called the Magyar Falu program another equally important government measure, which supports an ever-wider range of the population living in small settlements, thereby contributing to improving the quality of life of the villagers.
more about this in Magyar Hírlap .
