site.btaEU Funding Helps Increase Cultivated Land in Bulgaria

EU Funding Helps Increase Cultivated Land in Bulgaria

Sofia, July 2 (BTA) - Cultivated land in Bulgaria has increased
by more than 500 000 hectares since the country joined the EU in
2007, Agriculture and Food Minister Dessislava Taneva said on
Thursday, quoted by her ministry. Taneva was presenting the
results of five projects for farm land consolidation in Southern
Bulgaria.

In 2007 there was 3.3 million hectares of cultivated land,
including 2.85 million hectares of farm fields and the rest
being orchards and grassland. At the end of 2014 there was
almost 3.9 million hectares of cultivated land, she said.

EU funding has helped reduce Bulgaria's non-cultivated land. In
2007 non-cultivated land accounted for 30 per cent of the
country's agricultural land stock. By the end of 2014 the ratio
was reduced to between 10 and 15 per cent for the various
localities, Taneva said.

The minister noted that Bulgaria's main agricultural problem is
land fragmentation which hinders the creation of farms.

Proposing new land legislation is one of the main goals of the
Agriculture and Food Ministry. The purpose is to promote land
ownership relations which are conducive to land consolidation.