Cases managed by the land offices:
obligations of land utilization and ragweed eradication

Obligation of land utilization and its monitoring
Obligation of ragweed eradication and its monitoring

Obligation of land utilization and its monitoring

Land utilization for all users of the land means not only authorization but also obligation. The utilization and protection of the agricultural land are closely interrelated duties. The provisions of the Act on agricultural land referring to land utilization cover the land under agriculture or silviculture and – in certain cases, if the Act so provides – also other real estates that are not considered as agricultural areas.

The obligation of land utilization does not mean ”forced utilization” as the Act – according to the main rule – allows the right to choose. In other words: the lessee should utilize the land by agricultural production that corresponds to the cultivation line, or while terminating the production – following the instructions of soil protection – protect the land against establishment and spreading of weeds. The only exceptions of the main rule are the vineyards and orchards: the land lessee can only utilize them in a way corresponding to their cultivation lines.

The land office has systematically been monitoring the obligation of utilization. This is an official procedure called on-site inspection that is naturally adjusted to the agricultural year (in the period from spring to autumn). These on-site inspections are performed in every year on about 20% of the forest-free agricultural area of Hungary. It means that all agricultural lands are visited once in every 5 year, except the area under silviculture.

These on-site inspections include the checking the observance of further obligations and provisions of rules of law too. So the land offices check the utilization of agricultural land to other purposes without permit and the not reported changes in cultivation lines.

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Obligation of ragweed eradication and its monitoring

Valid legal background of the official ragweed monitoring is made of the following: the provision on the obligation of utilization of the earlier mentioned Act on Agricultural land; the Act XLVI/2008 on the food chain and its official supervision and the Governmental Decree 221/2008 (VIII. 30) on the official protection of public interest against ragweed, and detailed rules of establishing and requesting its costs.

The protection against ragweed is basically the obligation of the land user/lessee. The duty of the authorities is to order the protection of public interest and apply sanctions. 

In line with the Act on the food chain and its official supervision, the land lessee is obliged to block the growth of ragweed flower buds on his/her land parcel till 30 June of the given year, and maintain this status till the end of the vegetation period. This means a dual obligation: prevent ragweed flowering and continuously keep on this preventive action during the vegetation period.

According to the Governmental Decree, the on-site inspection in rural areas is the duty of the land office staff, in urban areas of the notary, ex officio or following a report. The land office performs on-site inspections ex officio in the ragweed hazard areas, and based on information, in the ragweed-infected areas. No need to send preliminary information to the land lessee about the on-site inspection.

In the interest of quick and efficient performance in investigating ragweed-infected areas, an excellent, really high-tech method was elaborated in 2005 by the Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing (FÖMI). This is a map of the ragweed hazard areas; a solution that is acknowledged all over Europe. These hazard maps show those rural areas, in which the probability of ragweed infection can be established through combining the satellite images interpreted by remote sensing methods with the experiences of earlier on-site inspections. FÖMI identifies these hazard areas in a monitoring system and produces a hazard map that has been updated continuously. In this way, FÖMI provides the land offices with a good and objective tool to select the most endangered areas for checking.

The land office starts on-site inspections on 1 July every year to check if the land lessees observe the prescribed obligation. If they find the omission of the obligation, they take the minutes and forward them together with the data indicated in the relevant Governmental Decree for further action to the Office of Agricultural Professional Administration (MgSzH) that had ordered the protection of public interest.

So, the official duties are divided between the land office and the Office of Agricultural Professional Administration. The land office investigates the ragweed areas and provides data from the land register and the land lease register for further action, while – according to the main rule – the MgSzH orders the protection of public interest. Further on, MgSzH obliges the land lessee (who missed the obligation) to cover the costs of protection of public interest and imposes the plant protection fine.