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Zalán Vizi (Bács-Kiskun Vármegyei Hírportál): Welcome, Prime Minister. Thank you very much for making yourself available to us. Allow me to ask you about drought protection: what’s the Government doing in this area?
Good day. This is also a strange situation for me – I rarely give you interviews, especially at the edge of a reed bed; because we can see the water in an irrigation channel next to us. The reason there’s water in it now, and the reason the machine behind me is making a noise, is because in May the Government decided that we should start preparing for a drought long before it arrived. We’ve mobilised 4.5–5 billion forints, we’ve mobilised 1,000 people and 205 pieces of machinery, and we’ve designated hundreds of intervention points throughout the country, where we’ve prepared for drought by improving water flow in the channels and increasing their ability to retain water. But I can’t say that we’ve protected Hungary from drought, because we’re not able to do that. Every year heat variations are increasing, the summers are getting hotter and hotter, and agriculture is facing more and more challenges; and we can only use irrigation to protect part of the country from drought. In total, Hungary now has about 110,000 hectares of irrigated land. Our plan is that in the coming period we should triple this; but even if we triple it, there will still be a lot of land that needs to be irrigated, but which we’re not yet able to irrigate for various reasons. So, with due modesty, I have to say that we’re doing everything we can – but even that will only be enough to alleviate the damage caused by the drought.
What can be done for farmers?
First of all, the most important thing is for farmers to have money. Everything depends on that. Since farmers generally don’t have enough money for irrigation, that’s where we can help the most – by giving water for free. It’s a big battle, because in Brussels they don’t like it – and in fact they prohibit it. So in Brussels they’re working to ensure that Hungarian farmers pay for the water they use – as do farmers in Western Europe. But if they have to pay for water Hungarian farmers won’t be in a position to compete with Western farmers. This is why for years we’ve been successfully fighting – Brussels or no Brussels – to give farmers access to free water. This means overall savings for Hungarian farmers of around 10–12 billion forints. The second thing we have to help them with is to get water to the edges of their fields, from where they can extract it. We’re working on that here, for example. And the third thing is that they’ll have to be capitalised later on – in other words, they’ll have to be given subsidies to enable them to buy irrigation equipment and put it into operation. If we want to increase the area under irrigation from 110,000 hectares to between 300,000 and 350,000 hectares, this will only be possible if farmers are partners in this, if they have the money, and are willing to make such investments. Cooperation with farmers and the Chamber of Agriculture is key here. But this isn’t going badly – the farmers understand what the Government wants, and we also understand what the farmers need.
You’ve mentioned the attacks on the provision of free water for irrigation. What’s your opinion on this?
I think that this is a national issue. So if someone is on the side of the Hungarian people and if Hungarian agriculture is important to them, they should also be on the side of Hungarian farmers. Without farmers there will be no Hungarian agriculture, and without agriculture there will be no Hungary. But sometimes politics overrides this, and sometimes opposition parties in Brussels don’t stand on the side of the Hungarians. This is also the case in the water price dispute. In Brussels they voted for Hungarian farmers to pay for water; but fortunately they’re still in the minority, and so we can give the farmers water for free. It’s a political debate – but in times of drought it’s not politics that matters, but water.
Thank you very much.
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