The Organization was founded in:
30th April 1993. at Gödöllő
Registered by Court of Pest Megye, Nr.1/94
Chair: József, Zsembeli
Secretary: Györgyi, Kovács
Treasurer: Géza, Tuba
The Organization cannot owns the national and international scientific and proffessional success, which have been reached by the members. Though the Organization is rated by the results of the membership.
Objectives of the Hungarian Branch
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Joining to ISTRO (founded in 1973) by actively adopting ISTRO Goals to develop expertise on soils, crops, and environment for the future of agriculture;
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Supporting scientific research on soil tillage and related fields (soil physics, soil and environment conservation, crop production, mechanization) and promoting the application of the results;
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Establishing and promoting contracts among scientific and practical experts;
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Presentation and discussion of soil tillage results at conferences and with demonstrations;
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Maintaining the traditions of soil tillage and related sciences, including the honour and appreciation of scientists, authors, farmers, and machine manufacturers and designers;
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Development of soil tillage and soil conservation, spreading knowledge, and training others based on new results;
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Moral and financial support for young scientists;
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Initiating and cooperating in scientific conferences and research projects on soil tillage and related fields;
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Publication in national and international journals and selecting special soil tillage issues;
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Popularization of ISTRO and Hungarian Branch activity.
Activities
During the last years, members have shown a great activity in scientific research on soil tillage and in related fields (soil physics, soil and environment conservation, crop production, mechanization) and promoted the application of their research results. They presented and discussed the results in national and international conferences, at soil tillage and crop production, including energy and green manure plants demonstrations and ploughing contests.
Themes of the conferences were: soil quality, mulch tillage, soil and water conservation tillage, mitigation of climate damages, water quality, crop quality, N-fertilization and leaching, environmental sound management, sustainable land use, GPS system, etc. Themes of the demonstrations were: soil conservation tillage, mulch tillage following maize under wheat, soil management under extreme climate conditions, alleviation processes, farming on dry and wet soils, crop (wheat, maize, sunflower, sugar beet, w. oilseed rape) quality and developing steps, multifunctional crop production.
Although they honoured the advanced traditions in soil management, many new improving systems were elaborated and adopted. The new ideas and methods were published in textbooks, in special articles of farmers’ journals and leaflets. They provided advices for farmers concerning the EU and national initiatives. Most of the members have been followed fruitful scientific and education cooperation in Central European (CZ, SK, Pl, RO, HR, SI) and Western European (A, D, F, NL, FIN, GB) relations, and in the USA. The Hungarian Branch of ISTRO has given moral and financial support to young scientists. Other financial support was provided for honouring of the scientific students activity and for organization of memorial conferences (e.g. for classic soil tillage authors).
Research
Members of HBI have elaborated, managed or cooperated in national scientific projects. The most important project purposes are as follows: Climate change – mitigation, Climate and food safety, Environment and food safety, Energy plants technologies and utilization, Crop production and protection, fertilization innovation, Soil quality, Organic wastes management, Precision farming, Geo-informatics. 14 members take part in inter-reg projects, and further members in different EU projects.
Research and technical books in number were published in the following topics: climate and solution, crop production, maize production, environmentally sound tillage, environment management, agricultural engineering, precision farming. Further scientific books published by EU Res. Centre, and G. Toth collaborated in the edition.
Some of the books were introduced in a festive occasion (books of J. Antal, M. Birkas, J. Nagy, I. Jori, and Climate Atlas from multi-authors).
Members of the Hungarian Branch of ISTRO may follow their scientific and educational activity in the future and are ready to react to new challenges.
Gödöllö, 15th January, 2014
Marta Birkas
chair of Hungarian Branch of ISTRO