The Role Of Direct Payments In Regional Subsidy Concentration In Hungary

The Hungarian agricultural economy is considered a sector that is a significant part of the national economy. The share of Hungarian agriculture in GDP is currently 3-4%; however, if Hungarian agriculture ceased to exist, at the same time about 15% of GDP (agriculture, food industry, input-output sector, agricultural banking sector) would disappear. It should be noted that agriculture in developed – or moderately developed – societies can never again be a key sector, but it could become a successful one. Following the European Union accession, Hungary was able to benefit from a number of subsidy sources, of which direct agricultural subsidies play a decisive role. There is no better indication of the relevance of subsidies, as area-based direct payments are still a significant part of the annual profits of farmers in Hungary. In the course of the study, an answer was sought to the question of how the regional concentration of direct payments developed, and whether there are significant differences in concentration among individual settlements. The equalization of the regional concentration of direct subsidies is confirmed by the settlement-based concentration studies, since as of 2004 the measurement methods show a similar value, which proves that there are no outstanding subsidy values at the settlement level, the concentration is evenly distributed.