New plant nutrition advisory system in Hungary

Abstract

The status and role of soil testing and plant analysis in the rather heterogeneous agricultural development of Central and Eastern Europe are summarized in the present paper, and an attempt is made to formulate the future tasks under the given changing political‐economical circumstances. The paper is based, in the majority, on Hungarian facts, taking into consideration the experiences of the other “post block‐countries,”; as well. Soil testing and plant analysis were in a relatively favourable position in the monolithic, centrally‐organized, quantity‐oriented systems of Eastern Europe, where agricultural production was based ‐ in most of the cases ‐ on large‐scale (sometimes “giant scale") state farms and collective farms. Relatively well equipped laboratories were established with high (sometimes oversized) analytical capacities and with highly qualified staff well trained in soil survey, laboratory analysis, data processing, interpretation, soil mapping, and advisory service. In the large state farms and collective farms, well educated agronomists represent the potential guaranty for the successful and efficient practical use of the provided data. Most of their activities ‐large‐scale, 1:10,000 practical soil mapping; soil tests and plant analyses for quality control and for the planning and implementation of rational plant nutrition; irrigation, drainage and soil reclamation practices; the establishment of forests, orchards, vineyards and other plantations; etc., were frnanced from the central state budget and the information‐advisory service was practically free of charge or given only for a “symbolic price”; from the users. Similar systems were used in Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Romania, and even in Poland and Yugoslavia — with mainly private and partly collective agricultural production, respectively. Within the framework of the COMECON, the methodology (from field survey and sampling through laboratory analytical methods up to their evaluation) was more or less standardized, making the data comparable and giving a good opportunity for integrated international cooperation. Some characteristic figures (list of parameters, capacities, etc.) related to the soil testing and plant laboratories are presented in this paper. The main problems of “collective”; agriculture are also mentioned in the paper in connection with their relationships to soil testing and plant analysis.

The favourable political changes and restructuring of these countries’ economics can be characterized by the following tendencies in agricultural production: i) privatization of agricultural land to a rational extent, ii) market‐oriented production, with special regard to efficiency, input reduction, and sustainability (prevention, or at least minimalization, of harmful environmental side‐effects), and iii) steps toward an European integration, with special attention to quality standards and environmental aspects.

Under these new conditions, soil testing and plant analysis require a new conceptual approach. This consists of three main activities: 1) Environmental monitoring: continuous registration of changes in land‐site characteristics (microclimate, hydrologic, soil and plant parameters) due to human activities, 2) soil‐plant advisory service for agricultural production, and 3) soil‐plant advisory service for other soil functions (e.g., storage of water and other materials, buffer media, filtering or detoxication of pollutants, etc.

Item 1 is a national task, consequently, it must be financed from the central state budget, while 2 and 3 are market‐oriented activities, paid, at least part, by the owners or the users of the land, or by the pollution sources.

At the present phase of economy‐restructuring, the soil testing and plant analysis laboratories are in a critical situation and are faced with serious survival problems. The governments have not paid adequate attention to this problems in spite of the obvious fact that within a very short time these laboratories ‐necessarily ‐ will have a particularly important role in the modern agricultural development of Central and Eastern Europe.