A conscious move towards a biomass-based economy could enable the establishment of resource-efficient, waste-free and sustainable farming, it was stated at a joint conference organised by the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture (NAK) and the Ministry of Agriculture within the framework of the National Agriculture and Food Industry Exhibition and Fair (OMÉK).
“The Government must play an effective role in the reorganisation of the biomass-based economy”, Deputy State Secretary for Agricultural Economy Zsolt Feldmann declared, detailing that a transition from fossil fuels to biomass could represent one of the cornerstones of sustainable farming. “However, the available quantity of biomass requires the well thought out well-organised planning of both production and processing. “, he added. “The biomass-based economy already exists, but making it sustainable and achieving resource-efficient and waste-free farming requires strategic planning that includes research & development and innovative solutions”, he continued. The main goal of the conference was to draw attention to the fact that the field will require broad cooperation and collective thinking between sectors in future, which must begin with the establishment of a national-level, and parallel to that a macro-regional level, strategy.
At the event, President of the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture Balázs Győrffy explained that the European Commission launched its Strategy for a Biomass-Based Economy in 2012, and accordingly the need for a move towards a strategy of this nature is also becoming increasingly apparent to the countries of the Central and Eastern European region. “Having recognised the significance of this, the NAK has supported the Central and Eastern European BIOEAST initiative from the very beginning, and is committed to the success of the process to establish a national strategy, in the interests of which it is willing to mobilise major resources to involve members of the private sector and support them in the later realisation of such a strategy”, he declared.
In his closing speech, Deputy State Secretary Zsolt Feldmann announced that a meeting of the Visegrád Group (V4) countries (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) and the agriculture ministers of Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia and Romania had been held parallel to the conference, during which issues relating to a biomass-based economy fuelled by research & development and innovation were also discussed. Following the meeting, the agriculture ministers issued a joint declaration concerning their commitment to the realisation of the goals of the BIOEAST initiative and the development of a macro-regional level, joint strategic research and innovation framework.