The teachers of the Albert Kázmér Faculty of Széchenyi István University won valuable professional awards at the Agriculturalist of the Year Awards, which brought together the best of the agricultural sector. This demonstrates the high quality of the institution's traditional and new areas of training and research related to sustainability and agricultural digitisation.

Several lecturers from the Széchenyi István University's Albert Kázmér Faculty of Mosonmagyaróvár recently received the prestigious professional recognition of the agricultural sector at the Agriculturalist of the Year Award ceremony. Dr. Balázs Húth, head of the Department of Animal Sciences, was named Livestock Breeder of the Year, while Dr. Viktória Vona, head of the Precision Agricultural Engineering programme, was chosen as the Agriculturalist of the Future. In addition, Dr. István Füzi, Associate Professor of Plant Pathology at the Faculty of Agriculture, received the Plant Protectionist of the Year award, while Dr. Péter Kovács, Associate Professor of Agriculture, founder-owner of Darnó Hús, a member of the Faculty's model farm, received the Food Industry of the Year award and the Agricultural Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Dr. Viktória Vona and Dr. Balázs Húth with their awards at the campus of Széchenyi István University in Mosonmagyaróvár (Photo: András Adorján)

"It was a great pleasure for us to represent the Széchenyi István University as winners and to promote the Albert Kázmér Mosonmagyaróvár Faculty. And we are particularly proud that four of the ten award winners in the ten categories at the awards ceremony are associated with our university," said Dr. Viktória Vona. "What makes the award particularly important is that it is awarded by the profession and social organisations, so that in addition to professional careers, social commitment is also recognised, and the award ceremony is attended by the whole spectrum of the agricultural sector", added Balázs Húth.

The aim of the award is to recognise the public work and social responsibility of people active in agriculture. "In addition to my research in the field of animal husbandry and precision farming, the award is also a tribute to my social commitment, with education at its heart. I believe that it all starts with education: I consider it crucial to promote the agricultural profession by passing on knowledge from primary school onwards, especially in livestock production, which is my passion," said Dr. Balázs Húth, who is also actively involved in talent management programmes in secondary vocational education.

"I consider it extremely important to provide practical knowledge in university education, and my aim is to highlight the importance of my main area of expertise, soil and precision, data-driven farming, from both a farming and a societal perspective. As a regular participant in farmers' forums, I strive to ensure that the results of our research reach farmers. Through my professional activities, I want to make rural life and sustainable farming attractive to young people. This also serves to promote sustainability: in this context, I have been involved as an organiser of several field visits and we also organise presentations at the university's Smart Farm to give them a closer look at agriculture," said Dr Viktória Vona.

This semester, the first in the country, Széchenyi István University started the precision animal husbandry and feed engineering programme, which is supervised by the award-winning Dr. Balázs Húth. "The essence of precision technology is to reduce feed and medicine consumption, improve animal comfort in animal husbandry, to produce healthier raw materials and thus reduce the ecological footprint of producing animal products. This is also at the heart of our training, which also responds to the labour shortage in agriculture: digitisation and the use of precision technologies minimise the risk from the human factor while serving sustainability," he stressed.  Applications are invited from students with a bachelor's degree in agriculture and engineering. "At Széchenyi István University, we have excellent cross-departmental cooperation with the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Informatics and Electrical Engineering, the Digital Development Centre and the Automotive Industry Research Centre, among others. We use the latest technologies in our training and research, so it offers exciting challenges for both IT and engineering graduates, and our students gain unique knowledge. Experience has shown that there is a growing demand for this, which is a great pleasure for me: as a livestock farmer, I think in terms of generations, so I consider it of paramount importance to educate the next generation and to show young people the rise of digital technology in agriculture," he added.

For seven years now, the faculty has been running the Precision Agricultural Engineer programme with great success, which is becoming increasingly popular with students from abroad. "It's important for us to provide our students with up-to-date, innovative knowledge, so we involve leading experts and professionals from the market. We are also building a vibrant professional community, which is the real strength of engineering training besides knowledge," said Dr Viktória Vona.