Long-term vision of rural areas in Hungary, focusing on foresights

Abstract

The Horizon 2020 SHERPA (Sustainable Hub to Engage into Rural Policies with Actors) project has made a contribution on behalf of 20 different Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) to the preparation of a new long-term vision for rural areas initiated by the European Commission. The Hungarian MAP – one of the groups of science-society-policy actors – chose the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS), more precisely digitalisation, as its flagship topic due to the fact that it is a horizontal issue and it is embedded even into the Common Agricultural Policy’s (CAP) strategic planning process. Thus, the development of AKIS requires close and intensive cooperation of policy makers, researchers and farmers or – in broader context – the society with various stakeholders. The aim of the Hungarian research team was to identify the current and likely trends for the Hungarian rural areas and to point out key challenges, opportunities, enablers and barriers in rural development in terms of digitalisation up to 2040. The methodology used was the Delphi technique. In the first phase, a review of key trends, main challenges and opportunities and a summary of existing foresight regarding digital agriculture was written. Then AKIS experts were asked to talk about their experiences and opinions in the framework of interviews, a focus group meeting and a survey. In the end, results of the survey were discussed in a consensus meeting. Among the results, it is worth mentioning that digitisation and digitalisation will fundamentally change how rural areas operate including economic, environmental and social dimensions. The main enablers of a promising future vision are capacity building for knowledge transfer, adaptation for job creation and offering better quality of life, stronger community building for collaborations, deeper government involvement, and last but not least, strengthening the local identity in rural areas. ocial responsibility and this makes a promising background for further research.