The Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, ÖMKi’s Summary of 2025
Scientific publications, important milestones and major events — we can look back on another successful year.
In 2025, our research institute worked day by day to bring us closer to a more sustainable, healthier food system.
Browse through our calendar, where we have collected the highlights and achievements of each month, and of course, stay with us in 2026!
January, February
Dr. László Mezőfi, research project leader of our horticultural group was honoured the Gusztáv Szelényi Memorial Medal at the Agrozoology Section of the Plant Protection Scientific Days.
We held a Central-Eastern European section with high-level policy delegates at BIOFACH in Nuremberg, the largest international organic trade fair and conference.
We organized three workshops for arable, fruit-growing, and viticulture farmers and on-farm partners.
March
We once again participated in the Hungarian Soil Science Society’s “SOIL under your feet” campaign day, presenting a soil profile dug at Antal Biofarm.
We launched the ÖMKi seminar internal program series, which provides our colleagues with an opportunity to report on their results and discuss their current research topics.
We presented our animal husbandry research at the March seminar of IFOAM Organics Europe’s Let’s Discuss Organic online lecture series.
We have published five new booklets about leaf mould, organic farm statistics, wheat variety tests, protein crops and consumer behavior in the Visegrad Four countries.
April
We organized ÖMKi’s yearly Sectoral Conference in Debrecen with nearly 190 participants.
Our large-scale international LIFE VineAdapt project, which examined the greening of vineyards, has been completed.
At the XXXI. Plant Breeding Scientific Days conference in Debrecen, we presented our ÖMKI-VSZT-NÉBIH post-registration variety trial results.
The annual meeting of the Horizon project called BOOST4BIOEAST, coordinated by ÖMKi, and the BIOEAST Conference took place in Bucharest.
May
In cooperation with the Lidl supermarket chain, ÖMKi’s organic landrace tomato variety seedlings were distributed across the country, to be bought by everyone who finds sustainable agriculture and gardening as important as us.
We held our fourth farmer training course on regenerative agriculture, with the support of EIT Food.
We launched a new international project on plant protection, specifically on the replacement of copper, called SCALE-IT.
The European Network of Agroecological Living Labs and Research Infrastructures, coordinated by ÖMKi, gained 38 new members after the first wave of applications, bringing the total number of members to 55.
June
We held our Arable Crop Field Day and the Annual Meeting of the DIVINFOOD project, which supports the rediscovery of ancient grains and legumes.
We launched a new consulting project in Azerbaijan to support organic transition, in cooperation with FiBL.
Our international PREPSOIL project on soil protection has been completed, through which we published, among other things, a 10-part video series.
Our advisory group has completed a study for WWF on the potential use of agricultural land in the Tisza floodplains for water retention purposes.
July
Our small-plot and on-farm cereal grain experiments in Szár have been successfully harvested.
A new funding cycle has begun within the framework of the CAP, enabling us to continue our on-farm research.
We published a new booklet about inter-row greening in the Tokaj and Eger wine regions.
August
At the “Bread Soul” Festival, we presented our recipe collection about ancient wheats, which was an instant success.
The annual meeting of the Organic Working Group of the Seed Association Interprofessional Organization and Product Council (VSZT) was hosted by ÖMKi, where the results of post-registration variety tests and the variety names for the next growing season were discussed.
The van promoting our Phito project arrived in Hungary, then has spent nearly three months here, rolling around the country to promote agricultural digitization at various events for farmers.
September
ÖMKi’s animal husbandry research won the AEDIH Agricultural Digital Excellence – special award. The award was presented at the National Agricultural and Food Industry Exhibition and Fair (OMÉK).
We participated in Organic Expo in Debrecen with presentations and a stand, where the 2025 Sárközy Award was also presented. The award went to Dr. Gábor Solti, the discoverer of alginate.
We once again participated in the Researchers’ Night program series, bringing people closer to organic farming and our research.
At FAO’s “Global Forum on Green Agriculture and 2nd Regional Science and Innovation Week for Europe and Central Asia” event, our animal husbandry group presented its research results at the innovation market.
ÖMKi organized a cross-visit for 17 agricultural advisors, covering 9 locations and 5 topics, under the title “Feeding in regions affected by climate change” as part of the Organic Advice Network project.
We organized professional training for European Living Labs dealing with soil health in Andorra, as part of the SOILL Start-up Bootcamp.
Our new international project, called WINN-Organic, was launched to innovatively encourage the transition to organic farming.
October
Jean-Martin Fortier’s book The Market Gardener on biointensive vegetable cultivation has been published by our institute in Hungarian.
The 2025 summary results of the ÖMKi-VSZT-Nébih organic autumn cereal post-registration variety tests have been published on our website.
We sowed ÖMKi’s small-plot cereal grain trial plots, which included durum, emmer, and durum-emmer crossbreeds, as well as organic post-registration variety tests for winter wheat, winter barley, and winter feed peas.
An 8-member ÖMKi delegation participated in the International Forum of Agricultural Living Labs in Bordeaux.
The training materials published as part of our LiveSeeding project, “Training materials on organic cultivar testing, organic varieties and OHM” and “Training material on healthy, high-quality seed,” are now available online on the Organic ePrints and ECO-PB websites.
November
We published two new booklets about domestic retail sales of organic products and regenerative practices in organic.
The National Chamber of Agriculture has published an updated version of our publication about yield-enhancing substances in organic farming.
As part of our Organic Yields UP project, we organized a six-person professional cross-visit to Luxembourg with the participation of Hungarian farmers.
A specialist book entitled The Limousin breed and its breeding in Hungary was published, with two chapters written by our colleagues.
December
We held two farmer workshops: a fruit grower meeting and a horticultural on-farm annual review meeting on legumes.
The BIOEAST Agroecology Working Group organized a science-policy dialogue on the macro-regional characteristics, challenges, and opportunities of establishing and operating agroecological Living Labs.
We successfully concluded our SOILL-Startup project with a closing conference in Brussels.
Our 2025 educational work in numbers
11 international scientific publications, 14 Agrofórum articles, 12 press releases, more than 350 media appearances
35 self-organized events and more than 60 conference presentations
700 pieces of digital content (posts, videos, website entries, newsletters)
We would like to thank our readers for their attention in 2025!
