Hungarian farmers late Wednesday agreed to end a 10-day-old blockade of the country's major roads after the government bowed to their demand for more state funding.

The farmers had insisted that they would not survive after Hungary joins the European Union in May unless they received bigger subsidies.

Under the late night agreement, the farming sector would be allowed to tap into an extra 60 billion forint (233 million euros / 290 million dollars) of agricultural subsidies, according to local daily Magyar Hirlap.

The government also pledged to take measures to protect the Hungarian farm industry against imported products sold at below-market prices, while big supermarket chains agreed to stop selling cheap imported milk substitutes that dairy farmers said push down demand for their milk.

The government also agreed to boost subsidies to diary companies that buy Hungarian milk, Magyar Hirlap said.

Thousands of farmers, mainly milk, pork and poultry producers, had since February 16 cut off traffic at some 70 points across the country by parking tractors on major highways.

On Monday, they began to block roads around Budapest, upping pressure on the government.

Farmers have said they were on the verge of bankruptcy and feared their livelihood was at risk because their goods could be priced out of competition in the EU.

Hungary has 220,000 farmers out of a population of 10 million people, according to the central statistics bureau.

They are struggling to recover from a difficult summer last year when a long Europe-wide drought saw them lose some 100 million euros. The government called the damage "unprecedented" in Hungary.