tortoise123

Hi,

My partner and I have bought a small farm near to Kecskemét, one hour South of Budapest. We have a small farmhouse, garden, pine wood, acacia wood and large field. 8 acres in total.

The house has been used as a Summer House for 40 years before we bought it. We are converting it back into a small working farm.

Has anyone applied for CAP / EU farming subsides or rural development grants? How easy is it? We have looked on the Ministry of Agriculture website but cannot see how you apply?

Is it better going to the Ministry or another government office?

Any advice would be appreciated.

duztee

Heh! Welcome to the Boring Flat Bit.

I know nothing about farming, but I have been to garden parties at a couple of small holdings through a friend of a friend.
They may be able to offer advice specific to the area, one of you would need to speak reasonable Hungarian if you want to ask technical questions, but if it helps I can probably get you an introduction, though you would probably get the same information from your neighbours.

jetsam1

Hi, good luck!

We looked at the Fiatal Gazda grants system a few years ago but decided to pass as the small print and requirements were a bit over the top, It was set up for people who are already farming considerable land already it seemed like. Find a lawyer and prepare for it to be pretty complicated and time consuming. Remember all EU grants are administered by the member country and Hungarian bureaucracy has a reputation. ANd have a think about what type of business you would want to be. Ostermelo would be appropriate but get an accountant and be certain about the rules. You will need to have a plan for what you will plant and an estimated yield which if you sell more than that you can be fined. For the bees we had to declare what we were intending to sell and give a figure for the amount of honey we would produce.

Oh and be careful about who you let work for you as we have have just had a very bad experience with a builder whose "work" is going to be expensive and time consuming to fix and screwed up quite a bit of our land. Fortunately we picked up on it early enough to prevent any real damage. But talking with locals it seems to be an issue in Bacs-Kiskun.

Paperwork is king. Everything in writing and proper bills. Don't let anyone try and fob you off with black market goods or labour as they will try.

Szeged

Peter_in_Hungary

Start of by visiting the office of your local "falugazdász" your local council should be able to help in finding them. They are part of the Nemzeti Agrárgazdasági Kamara (chamber of agriculture) who you could also contact if the local council can not help.
As far as starting to farm goes, the advice above is good - becoming an " őstermelő will help, this a small holder, it gives a way to sell produce and you get 600,000huf each tax free, but within this scheme there are limitations and if you want to sell processed products then you can also be a small producer. Your falugazdász should be able to help and advise. (We have always found them to be helpful).

The agricultural grants are run under the EU and are on a 5 year duration. and the next 5 years starts in 2020 (although organic production can be enrolled next year)
There are a number of different grants available depending upon what you are doing (or intend to do) Before you go to the falugazdász I would advise that you have an idea about what you want to do. The Fiatal Gazda grants (young farmers grants) are being revamped and whilst the paper work can be onerous the grant is significant. For this you will need to be under 40 and at the moment full time in agriculture but the government wants to expand this program.
8 acres is not a large amount of land if you are expecting to earn a living from it, especially if part of it is non productive (the wooded areas), however our neighbour for several years supported his family on a couple of poly tunnels growing organic tomatoes, aubergines, capsicum peppers and hot peppers. You will need to consider something similarly (labour) intensive perhaps a poly tunnel or soft fruit or bees. Your own well (with good water production) would be essential.

We organically farm 31ha (76 acres) where beef cattle are the main product. We have been here for 25 years and built it up from scratch. Can you share your ideas for your agriculture? and perhaps your experiences?