Proceedings: 2nd International Conference on Food and Agricultural Economics: MIGRATION AND AGEING PATTERNS IN AGRICULTURAL AREAS OF HUNGARY

Number of citizens in a country represents its primary production potential. Hungary has significant natural resources for agriculture. However, many problems follow rural areas, and one of these problems is connected to demographic changes such as; population decrease, outmigration and ageing. This paper attempts to investigate these factors to more fully understand the recent trends of an ageing population in agricultural areas of Hungary. Scolars argue that, in the rural context of aging, changes in the working-age population have a significant impact on agricultural output. The aim of the paper is to highlight the trend of demographic changes and their impact on the development of agriculture in Hungary. The obtained results indicate negative consequences of demographic changes as well as the reduction of the population working in the agricultural sector. One of the greatest consequences of deagrarisation is the lack of manpower. In this research we focus on Hungarian settlements, where individual farms and primary producers, ie small farmers carry out agricultural activities, in a way that they produce and receive revenue from this activity. Those revenues which have been realised by business organisations are not included in the research criteria. However, these organisation are members of the agricultural market, but they serve only as employers, and the employees of these companies, are actually doing agricultural activities, but not for their own benefit. Data was collected from the Territorial Information System provided by the Hungarian National Statistical Office.