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SOLVENA FIELD REPORT

Vranov nad Topľou · jún 2026 · zdarma / free

The decline

Slovakia is losing its farms

Slovakia lost more than a fifth of its farms in four years.

The country had about 25 600 farms in 2016 and 19 928 in 2020. The managers who remain are aging: 47% are over 55, and only 20% are under 40.1

The soil is in poor shape too. More than 700 000 hectares are compacted, and water has eroded a further 576 000. April 2026 was the driest April since records began in 1881. By early May, 60% of the country was short of soil moisture.2

39% of farms produce under €4 000 a year in standard output. The 94 largest farm between 461 and 2 378 hectares each.

In June 2026 we interviewed four cooperatives and one family winery in the Vranov nad Topľou district. The four cooperatives farm 5 670 hectares between them. They named input costs, drought and labor as their main constraints.

Tab. 1: Slovak farming, 2016 and 2020

Indicator20162020
Registered farms~25 60019 928
Farm managers over 551·47%
Farms under €4 000 annual output·39%
Terén · Fieldwork

Five interviews, one district

Wide view of grain fields and farm buildings
OBR. 1Ilustračné foto: grain fields in eastern Slovakia.

We held twelve-question interviews in Slovak, on the farm, with four cooperatives and one family winery. Between them the farms produce milk, sheep, beef cattle, cereals and wine.3

Between 94% and 100% of the cooperatives' land is leased, and two of them hold more than 4 400 lease contracts between them. Every farm tests its soil once in five years, and none has a sensor in its fields. The four cooperatives spend about €1.2 million a year on seed, fertilizer and crop protection.

01 Prešov · interviewed · 5 670 ha

02 Košice · target region

03 Banská Bystrica · target region

04 Žilina · target region

Tím · The team

Led by two students

Cross-section of dark topsoil threaded with fine roots
OBR. 2Ilustračné foto: topsoil and root layer.

Solvena was started by Laura Mária Demčáková and Eloise Olden, two students in Prague. Laura grew up in the Vranov nad Topľou district and led the farm interviews in Slovak. Eloise is from Texas.

We held every interview in person, on the farm. The interviews, the transcripts and the proposal are our own work.

Program · The four pillars

Four lines of work on the same partner farms. Agroforestry and soil monitoring come first.

I.

Soil health

No-till, cover crops, diverse rotations, compost and integrated grazing rebuild the soil and cut input costs.

II.

Agroforestry

Tree rows, shelterbelts and alley cropping put trees back into fields, designed around the farm's machinery and its subsidy rules.

III.

High-value goods

Organic and heritage produce, herbs, nuts and processed specialties can sell into premium and export markets.

IV.

Soil monitoring

Wireless soil probes, free satellite imagery and lab sampling show a farm what its soil holds and what each euro of fertilizer buys.

1. Listen. We interview farm managers in person, in Slovak, on the farm. So far we have recorded five interviews, all in the Vranov nad Topľou district.

2. Pilot. We plan an 18-month pilot with the four cooperatives we interviewed. It costs the farms nothing and places no obligation on them. We measure any savings against each farm's 2026 input costs.

3. Scale. We offer the methods that cut the pilot farms' input costs to other cooperatives, first in the Košice region, and we publish the results.

Kalendár · Next steps

What happens next

Each step starts only when the one before it is done.

StepWaits forStatus
Discovery interviews·underway
Land-access agreementsinterview findingsahead
18-month pilotsigned agreementsahead

Zapojte sa · Get involved

Three ways to help

We are looking for partner farms, funders and students. No agreement is signed yet, so what you tell us now still changes the plan.

Host. For farms. Host a free soil baseline or a pilot plot. Pilot sensors are free, and you commit to nothing until you sign a land-access agreement.

Fund. For funders. Support the design and pilot phase, with money released against milestones. The full proposal, with sources and a risk register, is available on request.

Join. For students. Help run farm interviews or build the soil-monitoring tools.

Talk to us
  1. 1. SafeHabitus (2025), Technical Note 1: Slovakia. Data: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, 2020.
  2. 2. SafeHabitus (2025), Technical Note 1: soil degradation figures. Drought: INTERSUCHO / SHMÚ, 5 May 2026.
  3. 3. Solvena farm interviews, June 2026. Figures as reported by farm management, combined across farms. Farms are not named.

SOLVENA · HÁROK 1/1 · JÚN 2026

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