by By Anita Komuves and Krisztina Fenyo
Ladanybene, Hungary (Reuters) Farmer in the most important agricultural area of the South Hungary are summarized with increasingly serious drought, since climate change cuts the harvest yields and reduces the groundwater level, with some considering the change or alternative employment.
The huge lowland between the rivers Tisza and Danube produces corn, grain and sunflower seeds.
The Hungarian meteorological service said on Thursday that the soil in the Central -Hungary remains “critically dry” despite the recent rains, with the summer plants being badly affected.
Krisztian Kisjuhasz, a beekeeper in Ladanybene, would usually bring his bees to his farm at the end of the honey-producing season in July and prepare them for winter.
This year, however, he packed his bees together in the middle of the night and wore a headlight with red light to bring them to a flood area of the Tisza River, more than 80 kilometers from his house to make sure they have access to pollen.
“Last year 30% of our bees mainly died because there were not enough pollen due to the drought … they were not strong enough for the winter,” he said, adding that the cost of commuting traffic to tend to force him to increase the honey prices.
Kisjuhasz, whose farm has been in his family for five generations for five generations, is now considering selling them and moving them into a less dry area.
“There is no future for beekeeping in the Homokhátság,” he said.
In May, the government launched a project worth around 5 billion forums (14.29 million US dollars) to clean channels and concentrate on the water binding to combat drought.
However, the government cannot fully protect the country from the drought, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said last month in an interview with the Baon.hu website.
“We do everything we can, but even these efforts are only sufficient to relieve the damage caused by drought,” he said.
In 2022, a drought made 1000 billion forums ($ 2.86 billion) for the agricultural sector to increase Hungarian inflation on two Decche.
Csaba Parti, a farmer in Jaszszentlaszlo, said that his grassland has emerged for the first time this year due to the drought and he was looking for alternative work.
The water must be brought back to Homokhatsag region either via channels or water retention, says Telli, otherwise “this area will dry out completely.”
($ 1 = 350.0000 Forint)
(Reporting by Anita Komuvesediting by Alexandra Hudson)
