Through its accession to the European Union in 2004, our country became a part of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as a result of which significant resources were made available for agricultural and rural development.

The Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (Mezőgazdasági és Vidékfejlesztési Hivatal - MVH) is an institution founded for managing the applications for supports financed from the above resources and the ones provided by the Hungarian national budget as well as for the allocation of the supports and the implementation of measures for the regulation of the market.

MVH began its operation as the general legal successor of the SAPARD Agency and the Agricultural Intervention Center.

MVH is supervised by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. It is an independent legal entity with national powers, and a budgetary organ having own business management. Its duties, powers, organization and operation are provided for by Government Decree 256/2007. (X.4.) on the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency.

The Agency consists of a central organ operating on horizontal issues and directorates with official powers as well as county offices providing 19 representations. In late 2009 its total staff number is 1,900.

In its capacity of an organization appointed by the Government in its decree and accredited by the competent authority for the purpose, it performs the duties of the paying agency related to the supports and other measures financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) replacing EAGGF and by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) within the framework of basic activities.

Furthermore, it performs the duties connected with the allocation of supports from the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) and the allocation and utilization of certain national supports. The Agency operates the recording systems related to its basic activities.

In the present budgetary period of the European Union (2007 to 2013) our country is entitled to utilize resources in a value of nearly EUR 5 billion. All of this sum will be spent on agricultural and rural development in the country, grounding in this way the competitiveness of the sector in the long run.

Within the framework of its activities MVH fulfills the duties related to the assessment of supports, the checking of the legal grounds as well as to other measures. It manages applications, issues resolutions, licenses and effects payments and conducts on-the-spot control. Furthermore, its duties include information provision, the storage of data, making reports, providing training and giving information to clients.

(It may delegate certain related duties to other cooperating organs in accordance with the Decree 48/2007. (IV.20.) FVM).

When performing its activities, MVH fulfills the duties related to:

• the operation of the regulation tools of certain CMOs; ,
• in respect of the Guarantee Section of EAGGF:

• the management of the internal market supports of the EU;
• the management of the external market supports of the EU;
• the operation of the intervention system;
• the management of direct payments and  the operation of the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) and its further development;
• the operation of the Market Information System, and
• the (accompanying) measures of rural development;

• the development as well as the implementation of the measures of the paying agency in respect of supports and measures financed from the EAFRD and EAGF replacing EAGGF ,as well as in respect of other measures;
• the supports allocated from the European Fisheries Fund (EFF), based on the instructions of the managing authority of the EFF;
• the maintenance and financial closure of the rural development measures  participating in the implementation of ARDOP as intermediary organization;
• maintenance related to the operation of the SAPARD supporting system;
• the utilization and implementation of certain national supports.

To this end, MVH operates:

• the customer recording system,
• the recording and checking systems aimed at managing the measures,
• the land identification system,
• the national GIS records on vine-lands,
• the intervention  store register,
• the records system of low amount (de minimis) agricultural supports,
• the monitoring data recording system.

MVH operates an Integrated Administration and Control System ("IIER") and an information system ("e-HIR") backing the control and operation of the Agency in order to perform its duties efficiently, to record the data connected with the utilization of financial resources and to back the processing of said data.

For the simplification of submitting applications and becoming eligible to supports, there has been a possibility of sending certain applications electronically since 2008 through an internet portal designed for this purpose, as a result of which only the applications meeting all the formal requirements are accepted due to an error detection software.

The goal of the Agency is to perform its activities to the greatest possible satisfaction to its clients, while meeting the expectations of the society, and to facilitate payments in due time, with utilizing all available resources for the Hungarian rural areas to catch up.

MVH obtained the ISO Certification No. HU07/0513/NAT/Q on December 4, 2007. Scope of the certification: Public administration services in the field of agriculture and rural development.  Issuer of the Certificate: SGS Hungary.