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Abstract
At the moment, Hungarian agriculture is confronted with a certain duality as far as nutrients are concerned. On the one hand, national soil nutrient balances show substantial deficits, and on the other hand, agricultural nutrient use is responsible for a part of the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) losses to the environment. To understand this duality and help optimize farm nutrient management, the farm gate N and P balances of 12 farms, representing a variety of Hungarian agriculture, were calculated for the year 2002. The farm gate N and P surpluses/deficits in the east of the country were lower than in the west. This was correlated with a lower fertilization rate. The low soil fertility level due to a prolonged period of low fertilization in combination with continuing nutrient deficits can lead to possible future reduction in crop yields.
Acknowledgment
This research was carried out in the framework of the project “Implementation of Nutrient Balances in Hungarian Agriculture: A Management Tool toward Sustainability” and was financed by the Flemish government (project HON/010/02) and RISSAC. We thank J. Szabó, P. Csathó, E Kratancsik Horváthné, S. Koós, E. Harsanyi, and T. Rátonyi for their assistance in field work and in the laboratory.
