This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Working from before dawn until midnight, farmers Nikoletta Pajsan Nagy and Laszlo Pajsan fought Europe's driest summer ever to save their red pepper harvest in Hungary. Unable to irrigate much of their 2.5-hectare (six-acre) plot because power lines run across it, they repeatedly loosened the soil around the plants, which are used to make the central European country's signature spice, paprika.
"I was absolutely convinced that we'd have to take on part-time jobs because they'd burn out," Pajsan Nagy, 44, told while selling her family's products at the annual town fair in Kalocsa, in southern Hungary. "But somehow the crop turned out bigger and more beautiful than in previous years. It was a miracle," she said, recalling some 20-hour days in the field.
The couple see themselves as part of a dwindling profession, as cultivation of paprika—an indispensable ingredient in traditional cuisine—has declined over the past several decades in Hungary, with many small producers going out of business. The area devoted to paprika peaked at 13,029 hectares (32,200 acres) in 1979 and had fallen to 1,410 hectares (3,480 acres) by 2024, according to official statistics. While cheap imports from China and parts of South America are squeezing producers, climate change is making paprika production more difficult and costly, according to Robert Braj, an adviser at Dutch-owned BWA Kft, one of Hungary's top food-seasoning manufacturers.
"There are longer droughts, more extreme heat waves, while new pests and diseases are spreading," Braj told AFP. Along with some other EU nations, Hungary experienced its driest summer since records began in 1901 and its second-hottest on record, according to national weather service HungaroMet. At the fair, paprika seller Agnes Toth recalled picking peppers as a child, taking part in the family business.
"Back then, we grew paprika on six hectares (15 acres). Now it's around three hectares (7.4 acres) because there aren't enough seasonal workers to harvest it by hand," the 44-year-old told AFP. "A family couldn't make a living from this anymore ...
Everyone has a full-time job. I'm a teacher, my brother is a firefighter," she said. Hungary's Agriculture and Food Economy Ministry told it seeks to strengthen producers' competitiveness, but it has yet to announce any new measures.
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