Agriculture has always played a determining role in Hungarian landscapes. Forested areas were also under agricultural use; however, their use changed, starting at least from the Middle Ages when the need for new arable fields resulted in a tremendous decrease in forested areas. The protection of forests started for many reasons, saving them for fuelwood and construction materials. This is the reason why there were periods when forests of the Carpathian Basin suffered from considerable pressure, and even today, this pressure continues; however, the source changed from animal husbandry to tourism, forestry, and wildlife management, or rather hunting. This created the need to search for and analyse former sustainable use of the forests. Furthermore, the consideration of the use of trees/treelines is under the scope of helping the climate adaptation of arable fields. Wooded grasslands have also been mapped and various analyses were done, related to their survival. We wish to introduce some of the ancestral forms of the agricultural use of Hungarian farming, where trees play an important role, their origin, distribution, threatening factors, and their future. Sustainable arable farming systems with trees, including wood-pastures; orchard grasslands and conventional, organic, and permaculture horticultural farms with various proportion of tree cover, will be described.

Az ökológiai és konvencionális gazdálkodási rendszerek fenntarthatóságáról több átfogó tanul- mány született, ugyanakkor a permakultúrát korábban nem vizsgálták tudományos igényességgel. Kutatásunk során e három gazdálkodási típus környezeti fenntarthatóságát vizsgáltuk, típusonként 10-10 gazdaság bevoná- sával. A környezeti fenntarthatóság méréséhez a FAO által publikált SAFA keretrendszerre épülő SMART indi- kátor rendszert használtuk, amelyet a svájci FiBL fejlesztett ki. Az eredmények azt mutatják, hogy a permakultúrás gazdaságok a környezeti dimenzió minden témájában jobban teljesítettek a konvencionális gazda- ságoknál, és több esetben az ökológiai gazdaságoknál is. A jövőben célszerű nagyobb elemszámú kutatásokat végezni, amelyek alátámasztják a közölt eredményeket és a kutatási módszertan fejlesztését is lehetővé teszik.

Soil is one of the most important, non-renewable natural resources of humans. People use soils for food production, thus maintaining soil health is crucial. Farming systems have a tremendous impact on soil biota. Effects can be negative and positive. Less intensive farming (e.g., organic and permaculture) is known to be more favorable for soil life while intensive farms known for their negative effects. Our aim was to compare different farming systems based on the density of earthworms. Fifteen small-scale (0.3–2 ha) farms in Hungary with similar agroecological features were selected for comparison. All of them are horticultural farms with diverse crops in the crop rotation, the only difference is the farming systems, i.e., one intensive (conventional), and two extensive types (organic and permaculture). Earthworms were sampled in May and September 2020, six replicates on each site, by hand sorting of 25 × 25 × 25 cm soil blocks. In May, abundance of earthworms were significantly higher in case of permaculture farms compared to organic and also conventional farms. However, we did not find significant differences in earthworm abundance in September. Earthworm species number was significantly higher in permaculture farms in May however there was no significant difference in September. We did not find significant differences regarding Shannon diversity indices. Based on our soil-wise experiences it is of great importance to know as much soil information as possible (i.e., soil thickness, soil organic matter content, texture, soil management, fertilizers used, soil moisture content at the time of the counting, soil cover etc.) for considering earthworms data as good indicator for soil quality assessment.

As a result of agricultural intensification in parallel with the strong growth of the human population, we need to pay more attention to the responsible use of resources and the maintenance of the proper functioning of ecosystems. The various pollinators play a prominent role in the functioning, as they provide about 84% of the production of fruit and vegetable production, which production requires significant resources through artificial pollination. In our case study, we measured the effects of three different farming systems (permaculture, organic and conventional) on Szentendre Island in terms of farm-level temporal average number and diversity of pollinator species groups. Visual sampling was performed in all areas in 2019., for a total of four-time points (May 19, July 4, July 22 and September 05). Of the three farms, the permaculture farm had the highest total temporal average number of pollinators and the diversity of taxonomic groups during the study year. In conclusion, the establishment and maintenance of farms that provide spatially and temporally diverse bee pastures are extremely important in maintaining adequate temporal average number and diversity of pollinators, and thus securing long-term crop production which requires pollination. It seems that permaculture farms can provide this to a greater extent than organic or conventional.

Increasing agricultural intensification can have a large impact on pollinating communities in terms of number and diversity, which often show a declining trend these days. Pollination is an important regulating ecosystem service, providing about 84% of fruit and vegetable production. The diversity of pollinators and the appropriate number of individuals are key to efficient pollination. In study, we examined the impact of three farming systems (organic, permaculture, and conventional) on the temporal, average farm-level number and diversity of pollinator species groups. We sampled all together fifteen small-scale (0.3–2 hectares, 5–5 in all three types) farms in North-Central Hungary with similar agroecological features. All of them have horticultural production with diverse crop rotation. We used visual sampling method to register individual number and taxa of pollinators in 14 categories in May, July and August, 2020. Our results show that the abundance of some pollinator taxonomic groups was highest in case of permaculture farms and in some cases even significant differences were found (e.g., Apidae and Total number of pollinators taxonomic groups). On the other hand regarding taxonomic group Shannon diversity of the pollinator communities, we could not detect any significant difference between the farming types. Our results show that permaculture farms could maintain a diverse and abundant pollinator community during the studied period, but we have to consider the farm management factors like plant protection measures, flower resources and biodiversity management on the farm, also natural habitats around the farms and the attitude of the farmers towards protection of pollinators.

Farming systems with differing intensities have various impacts on soil biota. The objective of our study was to assess the effects of different farm types (conventional, organic and permaculture) and soil characteristics on earthworm populations. The main consideration was that scientific knowledge on permaculture farms in regards to soil fauna is missing. According to our hypothesis permaculture farms provide the most ideal conditions for earthworms. Fifteen micro-farms (0.3–2 ha) with similar agro-ecological features were selected for comparison in the North-Central part of Hungary. These were all horticultural farms with diverse crop rotations. The basic difference was the intensity of the farming activities. Earthworms were sampled in May and September (2020) with six replicates on each farm (90 samples in total). Earthworms found in the 25×25×25 cm soil blocks were hand-sorted. Five soil samples from each site were analysed for texture, pH, soil organic matter, macro- and micronutrient content in September (2020). Seven endogeic and three epigeic earthworm species were detected. In September species numbers were higher, in the average of the earthworm species number and Shannon diversity there were lower differences, a stronger positive relationship was found between CaCO 3 content and earthworm abundance, adult earthworm average was strongly and positively affected by magnesium content. Earthworm species number was significantly higher in permaculture farms while earthworm abundance was also significantly higher but only in May. This partly validates our zero hypotheses that permaculture farms have the best performance in providing good conditions for earthworm populations.