Magyar Hírek, 1986 (39. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1986-04-25 / 8. szám
Ferenc Erdei — a pioneer of modern Hungarian agriculture A discussion with Pál Romány . . he really cannot have any claim to being extraordinary, he precisely fills the bill of being a model of the ordinary man of our age. He is qualified for that by the course of his life. He was born in 1010 around the middle of Europe, into a society which was urban as well as rural, a peasant society as well as not. He served in the army, and he has found himself within the attractive force of the labour movement, he conformed, and demonstrated, received distinctions and also spent time in jail. In the course of his later career he was a farmer, an editor, a sociologist, a market vendor, director, minister, member of the Academy, thus a man of sufficient experience to become generally a human being.” — wrote Ferenc Erdei, who would be 75 now, about himself. L’ál Romány, First Secretary to the County BAcs-Kiskun Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, who for a long time had been in close working contact with Ferenc Erdei, then — in the fullest sense of the word — followed in his footsteps, has contributed a great deal to the evaluation and processing of that rich life work. “ Where and how did you f irst meet Ferenc Erdei?" “As a recent graduate I found myself —as a result of an odd incident-employed by the Ministry of Agriculture. As it happened, a working connection developed between Erdei and me on a number of levels. Later he entrusted me with the vetting of a few of his books, and in the late fifties, at the farm management conference at Bábolna, he was my consulting partner, after which we worked together on a number of committees. 1 took over the journal Gazdálkodás, which he established in ’957 and continued to direct for a long time, in the late sixties. I endeavoured to preserve his spirit in the contents of the journal, in fostering its contact with reality.” “When he served as Minister of Agricultnre for the first time between 19-19 and 1953, Erdei had to wrestle with difficult tasks." “He was in a difficult position in every way. In those years the average yield of wheat was barely 0.7 tonnes per hold, that is 1.15 tonnes per hectare. There was no escaping the delivery obligations, harvesting was followed by strict accounting, and the producers could retain only 0.22 tonnes of wheat per head and per family member. Peasants who met their delivery obligation could get permission — if there was a wedding or christening in the family—to mill 50 kgs wheat in addition to the personal quota. Similar obligatory rules, were applied —after they were introduced in the war years—also in animal husbandry. Food rationing and black marke teering fed on each other. Ferenc Erdei was born into an onion-growing family in Makó. He was sent to university and then abroad, to gather experience by the three thousand strong cooperative of oniongrowers. He was keenly aware of the benefits of cooperation and felt that it would create a turn for the better in the whole of the Hungarian agriculture and in village life as such. But he argued strenously against those who wanted collective farms without household plots, arguing that high-rise blocks would tower above villages and everyone would resort to shops instead of growing their own vegetables and keeping poultry and pigs. It was not his doing that fewer and fewer people supplemented their earnings in the cooperative with incomes derived from household plots due to the absence of the right conditions and markets, or of confidence in enjoying the fruits of production.” “Many are convinced that Erdei played a major part in Hungary today being in the vanguard of agriculture and the food processing industry. Do you agree?" “Nobody has summed up yet — since this is not easy — how much Erdei has done for the Hungarian agriculture. Nevertheless, it is true that the basic institutions of agricultural research were organized while he held office, and that he submitted a plan for the Gödöllő University of Agriculture, and that the Agricult ural Academy, which trained hundreds of peasants for positions in agricultural management was also established in his time. After 1957, he again established contact with the department first as a sociologist, later as a Patriotic People’s Front functionary, when he argued in favour of the renewal of cooperatives. It was precisely a work of his which started the national debate on cooperatives in the sixties, in the wake of which an appropriate decision was taken about the equality of status of cooperative property and about the most important questions of the development of cooperatives.” “Although nobody questions his merits, still, many wonder nowadays why did Erdei not prevent forced collectivisation, why did he allow voluntarist production policies, and an alienating settlement policy to operate in the fifties" “The young sociologists and historians forget that policy making did not operate in its present form in those day's. To mention just one example, there was also a Ministry for Collecting Agricultural Produce and Livestock, and those empowered with collecting in the counties had an almost unlimited power. The Ministry of Agriculture could hardly oppose them. Erdei did all that he could whenever he had an opportunity to do so. For instance, the infamous kulaks’ list and the trials they triggered were abandoned when he held the portfolio of justice for a year, starting in July 1953.” “People nowadays kdk highly of Hungarian agriculture. Yet it has some peculiarities, which appear odd, sometimes simply incomprehensible to foreigners ...” “I woidd mention only two of the peculiarities: the household plots, and the non-agricultural activities of large farms, since they' are at the bottom of most misapprehensions. That is due to the fact that the explanations are not sufficiently clear. In the instance of the household plots, for instance, we must focus on the production process. According to the data, one third of the production of Hungarian agriculture comes from farming carried on with family labour, that is from household plots, even though they occupy hardly' ten per cent of the arable land. But our statistical system does not make the production process tangible, it only records the ultimate output. The cereals and fodders produced by the large farms are transformed into meat, milk, eggs etc. in the household plots of villages and market towns. In other places vegetables produced under the protection of plant-protect ive helicopters of cooperative farms appeal' as endproducts of household plots on the market—and in the statistics. The seedlings or the breeding stock of individual farmers which they fatten or milk comes from the cooperative as well.” “The industrial activities of large farms were ('ailed into life also by reason and concrete demand. Industrial work made agricultural employment more balanced, and helped to slow down migration from the villages, reducing commuting, bringing the pattern of village society closer to their urban counterparts. Thanks to industrial employ'ment the income of the rural population grew, and the urbanisation of the village was speeded up.” “In his time Erdei wrote that the living conditions and social situation of agricultural ivorkers were less advantageous than those of industrial workers and others working in other sectors. What is the situation today?” “Now we are witnessing a transformation of the villagetown relations and the improvement of the situation of the village. People wish to move to villages from towns, provided chat the village offers proper conditions in respect of basic requirements. Many- villages can do that, since the village is no longer what it used to be. The old village is disappearing not because it officially aquires town status, but because the social conditions and production conditions of the inhabitants have changed. It is the peasant backwardness that was overcome — the; very matters Ferenc Erdei fought against all his life.” ÉVA ÁROKSZÁLLÁSI CHRONICLE Mrs Ernő Mihályfi dead Mrs Ernő Mihályfi - who used the name Filo died recently' in Budapest at the age of 76. She was a well known graphic artist and former art editor of this journal. Her posters and book covers will be long remembered, as will her skills as an art and picture editor. She was the literary executor of her late husband, Ernő Mihályfi, the noted publicist and politician, and she established the Ernő Mihályfi prize for talented young journalists. Europe Prize for a Hungarian architect Antal Lázár, a Hungarian Architect was amongst the winners of the Europe Prize of Industrial Architecture. He designed the Budapest Waste Recycling Works. The ceremony took place in Hannover, in the Federal Republic of Germany. The prize was established by the organizers of the international construction industry exhibition “Constructa” in Hannover with the objective of making industrial architecture, which received scant appreciation in the past, an organic part of general architecture. Evaluating the Budapest vaste recycling works the jury pointed out the extremely complicated and up-to-date technology of the building. First the waste is subjected to combustion then the ferrous materials are extracted; electric energy is produced at the rate of about 25 Mega Watts, as well as sufficient' heat for the heating of nearby housing and industrial estates. The works are capable of not only treating 60 per cent of the waste generated in Budapest but also of rendering it harmless satisfying the demands of hygiene. The aesthetic presentation of the waste-recycling works was also stressed. It was constructed of steel and glass, and the environs were turned into a harmonious unit with lawns and trees. Antal Lázár is also the designer of two furniture stores—built before the prizewinning project —, owned by'the Dooms enterprise in Budapest and Székesfehérvár. Rebuilding of the thermal baths of Hévíz Following a fire, which gutted the upper structure of the baths of Hévíz, a resort much frequented by visitors from other count ries, reconstruction has already began. The equipment destroyed will soon be replaced by more modern items. Hévíz will reopen in early May. The therapeutic properties of the waters of the lake were not affected by the fire, since« the springs that feed it ensure that the water is changed every two days. The buildings destroyed by the fire will be reconstructed in their original form using pinewood imported from Austria. 30
