*3.2. Baseline Biomass Productivity Indices and Map for Croplands of Hungary*

By implementing the biomass productivity model on the national soil, climate and topographic geodatabase, a new soil biomass productivity map was produced (Figure 4). The map shows the general productivity of croplands. In the same process, crop-specific productivity maps were also produced. While the crop-specific productivity indices and maps can be used for planning land use and cropping, the general productivity map provides an overview of the spatial pattern of biomass potential of agricultural parcels in the country.

**Figure 4.** Croplands' land evaluation values range between 0 and 100 in the case of general biomass productivity of arable lands without slope correction coefficients (**A**) and separately wheat (**B**), maize (**C**) and sunflowers (**D**).

The map confirms the empirical knowledge that the most fertile areas are on chernozem soils in the east and on various loamy soils in the west of the country. Sandy soils, whether in the western, the central or the eastern part of the country, perform rather poorly. This phenomenon is typical of a country where water supply is the main climatic factor limiting crop production.

The mean productivity index for all the croplands is 64.7, with a standard deviation of 13.4, reflecting the dominancy of medium-to-good land within the agricultural areas of the country in terms of the spatial extent (Figure 4A).

The mean productivity index after slope coefficient correction for all the croplands of the country is 58.9, with a standard deviation of 18.5, reflecting the dominancy of medium-to-good land within the agricultural areas of the country (Figure 5).

**Figure 5.** Croplands' land evaluation values range between 0 and 100 in the case of general biomass productivity of arable lands after slope correction.
