COORDINATED SOIL CONSERVATION PRACTICES IN HUNGARY

Hungary is a flatland in average, but some parts of it have many steep slopes. Hungary is more arid than the surrounding countries and a ver y great drought has been going on since 1986. The average of the annua l precipitation is sufficient for the production of winter wheat, maiz e etc. but the water demanding plants often suffer by drought. Neverth eless such crop rotations are involved which comply the requirements i n most of the years. The decreasing of water storage in the soils show es principally loss of erosion. The main mean of soil conservation is the impediment across the run off. In the ''moderately steep'' slope c ategory (5-12% horizontally longer, but only 150 m wide plots are plan ned. The obligatory plant rotation combined with meliorating tillage i s used in the 12-15% ''medium sloping'' category. The ''steep category '' (17-25%) os seldom used for agriculture. In this case the best cons erving crop rotation is followed by a four-year sward. The protection of the retrogressing gully is used too among the expensive technologic al controls.