Bulgaria Newsflash Week 18
Cross-bordering cooperation against hail; 480 mln for green payments; subsidies for rose blossoms; good news about the wheat fields; new trends in the plantations with essential oil and medicinal crops: Bulgaria Agri News Week 18 in a nutshell.
Bulgaria and Romania will cooperate in anti-hail protection
Bulgaria and Romania will pool efforts to protect the farm fields in the border area against hail. The Bulgarian Council of Ministers approved a bilateral agreement to that effect, providing for joined action in the atmosphere through aviation technologies and anti-hail missiles. They will alert each other of extreme weather events in the area, especially in the regions to be protected against hail; and will conduct joint studies in the area of technologies for fighting hazardous weather events. In a separate development, Bulgaria started a pilot project for anti-hail defence by aircraft, which will cover areas in northern Bulgaria not protected by the anti-hail missile system.
BGN 480 Mln for Green Payments
State Fund Agriculture has paid out BGN 480,436,511 in the 2020 campaign under a scheme 'for agricultural practices beneficial for the climate and environment (direct greening payments), Balgarski Fermer reports. The aid has reached 54,650 farmers which use farming practices that are beneficial for the climate and the environment. The rate of support was increased to BGN 133.84/ha.
BGN 3 million available for processing of rose blossoms
State Fund Agriculture has approved a BGN 3 million budget for de minimis subsidies to compensate part of the costs for processing of oil-bearing rose blossoms from the 2021 harvest. It will encourage those processing roses to purchase larger quantities as some of their costs will be covered. The subsidy will be available for companies processing oil-bearing roses (rosa damascene and rosa alba) and are registered under the Oil Bearing Roses Act. The subsidy is BGN 0.30/kg of processed blossoms. A single processor can receive no more than BGN 150,000.
Bulgaria’s wheat fields are in good condition
Wheat fields in northeastern Bulgaria’s Dobrudja region – the granary of Bulgaria – are in very good condition, Prof. Ivan Kiryakov says in an interview in Balgarski Fermer weekly. The bigger part of fields are in the first phonological growth stage of formation of first and second node (stage BBCH 31-32), with the exact stage varing between fields based mostly on the wheat variety. After a drop in temperatures around March 25, some varieties are showing leaf burn (only the leaf ends are damaged) but that is no cause of concern. Compared to the previous year, the amount of precipitation was considerably bigger in October 2020-March 2021. The total amount of rainfall was over 300 l/sq m, which is 80 l more than in the whole period from 1951 to present. The productive moisture in the region is very good and this is beneficial for the grain fields and other crops in the region.
The trends in the plantations with essential oil and medicinal crops
The fields under essential oil and medicinal crops, such as lemon balm and fennel, declined in 2020, Agrozona reports. In 2020, harvested lemon balm fields (grown for dry mass) totalled 641 ha, down from 1,367 ha a year earlier. The total output of dried herbs was 1,631 t, down from 3,800 t a year before. Farmers’ interest in fennel also decreased: fields contracted to 2,774 ha from over 4,000 ha in 2019, and the output dropped to 558 kg/ha. Interest in lavender increased and lavender fields grew by over 6,000 ha to more than 18,000 ha. Coriander plantations increased as well: by 3,000 ha to over 21,600 ha.