Bulgaria Newsflash Week 20
How Bulgarian farms structure changes according to 2020 census? What is new with grains and oilseeds in Bulgaria? Answers of these questions and more agri news from Bulgaria in Bulgaria Agri News Week 20, 2021.
Farms in Bulgaria Get Fewer and Bigger
The farms in Bulgaria have increased the area they use by 9% in the past ten years, the Ministry of Agriculture said citing a farm census in 2020. Farmed land was 3.62 million ha in 2010 and 3.96 million ha in 2020. The average per-farm area has increased to 33 ha from 10 ha in 2010. In 2020, open-air farmed land totaled 3,318,000 ha. 60% of that was grain crops and 31% were technical crops. The trend of increasing land under grains has persisted and in 2020 it was 11% more than in 2010 and 24% more than in 2003. Wheat has the biggest share of all grain fields and sunflower dominates among the technical crops. In 2020, livestock farms breeding farm animals, poultry and bees totaled some 71,500. The Bulgarian farms which met the standards set in the census legislation, total 132,400. They were fewer than in 2010 but that does not mean that farming activities have been downsized. The smaller number of farms goes with an increased farmed area and number of animals.
Farmers invited to apply for COVID aid
Between May 17 and June 4, 2021, farmers and small and mid-sized enterprises which have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, can apply for aid, said State Fund Agriculture. The sub-measure for COVID-19 has a total budget of EUR 7,524,692 or BGN 14.7 million and is available for the sectors of fruit and vegetables; oil-bearing roses; wine vineyards; decorative plants; and animal husbandry (cattle, buffalos, sheep and goat).
What is new with grain and oilseeds in Bulgaria
Initial forecasts by the Centre for Agri-Policy Analyses (CAPA) had the average wheat yield of the new harvest at some 4.90 t/ha. The total output is forecast at 5.8 million t, which is about 15% more than last year when the output was the same as in 2015. The going forecast of JPC Mars is for the output to increase to 4.76 t/ha, which is 21% more than last year. The initial forecast for barley of the new harvest is for 4.6 t/ha and a total output of a maximum of 500,000 t. This volume is as much as last year. JRC Mars expects the output at 4.61 t/ha which is an increase by 13% from last year. The average yield for rapeseed of the new harvest is expected at 2.7 t/ha and the total output in the coming season at 400,000 t, which is 2% more than in 2020, when the produced amount fells to the level in 2012-2013.
NE Bulgaria to have its largest meat farm in 2024
A new cow-cattle farm in the village of Vladimirovtsi is about to become the biggest in Northeastern Bulgaria: by 2024 the 7-ha farm will be raising 1,000 cows, Balgarski Fermer weekly reports. The farm is planned in a way that will ensure full control on birthing, feeding and insemination. Owner Shenol Choban even now offers feedlot services to farmers from across the country and they can bring their calves here to gain weight, is as the common practice is in the advanced economies. He started off dreaming of having a feedlot operation to cater to other farmers’ cattle but then decided he would have his own calves in the feedlot because it is twice as expensive to buy from Europe right now.