User:Cserlajos/Agriculture

Agriculture

Hungary, with its plains and hilly regions, is mighty suitable for agriculture.

Arable land

Doubtless, one of Hungary's most important natural resources is arable land. It covers about 49.58% of the country, which is outstanding in the world (see the related map). The mass majority of the fertile soil has a good quality.

The most important agricultural zones are the Little Hungarian Plain (it has the highest quality fertile soil in average), Transdanubia, and the Great Hungarian Plain. The last covers more than half of the county (52,000 km² in number), whereas soil quality varies extremely; the territory even contains a small, grassy semi-desert, the so-called puszta (steppe in English). Puszta is exploited by sheep and cattle raising.

The most important Hungarian agricultural products include maize (kukorica or tengeri in Hungarian, wheat (búza), barley (árpa), oat (zab), sunflower (napraforgó), poppy (mák), potato (burgonya), millet (köles), sugar-beet (cukorrépa), flax (len), and numerous other plants. There are also some newly naturalized plants, too, for example, amaranth (amaránt). Poppy consumption is part of the traditional Hungarian cuisine.

The country is well-known for producing high quality green pepper (paprika). The are numerous fruits reared, including many subspecies of apple (alma), pear (körte), peach (őszibarack), apricot (kajszibarack), water melon (görögdinnye), cantaloup (sárgadinnye), and so on.

Hungary opposed to enable the production of any GMO product (though nor farmers want to produce it), and these products, mainly imported from the United States, cannot be distributed without a mark on the wrapping.

Viticulture

Wine production has long roots in Hungary. There are two languages in Europe which word for "wine" does not derive from Latin: Greek – and Hungarian. The word is bor.

In the 5th century AD, contemporary travellers, records, and entries in Byzantine encyclopedias mention the vineyards maintained by Hungarians, and that wine was one of their important drinks. Hungarians settled the area of present-day Hungary in 896, where, some 100 years later, the country was formed. Wine-making was also recorded in the Middle Ages and in later times.

Today, there are numerous wine regions in Hungary, producing quality and inexpensive wines as well, comparable to Western European ones. The majority of the country's wine regions are located in the mountains or in the hills, such as Transdanubian Medium Mountains, Northern Medium Mountains, Villány Mountains, and so on. Important ones include the regions of Eger, Hajós, Somló, Sopron, Villány, Szekszárd, and Tokaj-Hegyalja.

Forestry

19% of the country is covered by forests. These are mainly mountainous areas, such as the Northern and the Transdanubian Medium Mountains, and the Alpokalja. The composition of forests is various, with trees like fir, beech, oak, willow, acacia, plane, etc.

Historical development of Hungary

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