The number of Hungarian farms has fallen by 41 percent over the past decade, while land and livestock have become increasingly concentrated, Világgazdaság reported. Based on the results of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office’s (KSH) “Agriculture 2026” census, the structure of agriculture is changing rapidly, but the farming community is hardly getting any younger: 37 percent of farm managers are already 65 or older.
As of June 1, 2026, only 163,000 farms were engaged in agricultural activities in Hungary. This is 35,000, or 17 percent, fewer than three years earlier, and the number has already declined by 41 percent compared with 2016, based on the preliminary results from the KSH’s Agrárium 2026 census.
As farms have disappeared, land concentration has continued to increase.
The average agricultural area per farm grew by 18 percent between 2023 and 2026, reaching nearly 33 hectares. The average arable land area reached 34 hectares, the average area of grassland was nearly 17 hectares, while fruit farms averaged 4.3 hectares and vineyards 3.1 hectares.
The trend did not affect all sectors equally.
The number of farms engaged exclusively or primarily in crop production fell by 22 percent over three years, while the number of livestock farms decreased by 16 percent. In contrast, the number of mixed farms—those engaged in both crop production and livestock farming—rose by 28 percent. This trend points toward more rational farm management, as it reduces the vulnerability of farms.
The KSH also noted that the rise of mixed farming suggests that some of the remaining farms are trying to mitigate market and weather risks by diversifying their operations.
Crop production remains dominant: 68.2 percent of farms fell into this category. The share of livestock farms was 14.7 percent, while mixed farms accounted for 12.3 percent. Hungary’s agricultural land area remained just under five million hectares. Of this, 82 percent was arable land, 15 percent was pasture, 1.7 percent was orchards, and 1.2 percent was vineyards.
Photo: Pixabay
Cereals covered 2.2 million hectares, and industrial crops covered one million hectares. Winter wheat was grown on the largest area, 986,000 hectares; the area planted with sunflowers covered 781,000 hectares, while barley covered 372,000 hectares. Meanwhile, the decline in corn cultivation continued: by 2026, the area under corn cultivation had fallen below 600,000 hectares.
Concentration is even more pronounced in livestock farming.
The total herd, expressed in livestock units, increased by 19 percent compared to 2023, while 83 percent of the animals were already kept on farms with more than 100 livestock units. This proportion was still 73 percent in 2013.
Meanwhile, the number of farms with fewer than five livestock units plummeted from 179,000 in 2013 to 41,000. In other words, in just over a decade, more than three-quarters of smaller livestock farmers have disappeared from the statistics.
Photo: Pixabay
The cattle herd stood at 889,000 head in early June, 1.8 percent more than in December 2025. The number of pigs, however, decreased by 63,000, or 2.2 percent, over the course of half a year, though it still exceeded 2.8 million. The KSH recorded 36.7 million hens, 3.7 million ducks, 2.2 million turkeys, and 1.2 million geese.
While the structure of the agricultural sector is changing rapidly, the age composition of farm managers has remained essentially unchanged over the past three years. Thirty-seven percent of farms are managed by people aged 65 or older, while those under 40 account for only 10 percent.
This means that there are nearly four times as many farm managers of retirement age working in Hungarian agriculture as there are under the age of 40.
The decline in the number of farms may therefore continue in the coming years, especially where the transfer of the farm—whether within the family or to an outside party—has not been resolved.
A more positive trend is evident in terms of education. The proportion of farm managers with higher education in agriculture has risen to over 12 percent, meaning that one in every eight farms is now managed by such a professional. The proportion of those with no agricultural education at all has fallen to 48 percent. Seven out of ten farms were managed by men, and three by women.
The KSH conducted the “Agriculture 2026” census between May 15 and July 15 in 969 municipalities. Approximately 47,000 individual farms, 14,000 agricultural organizations, and 4,500 priority individual farms participated in the fully electronic data collection.
Via Világgazdaság; Featured photo: MTI/Czeglédi Zsolt
The post Number of Farms Declines Sharply appeared first on Hungary Today.
Number of Farms Declines Sharply 2026
IUSTITIA.BG – Investigations 2009-2026 2026-09-04 10:18:29
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