site.btaAgriculture Ministry to Prioritize Stockbreeding, Crop Husbandry and Organic Farming

111 POLITICS - AGRICULTURE MINISTRY - PRIORITIES

Agriculture Ministry to Prioritize
Stockbreeding, Crop Husbandry and
Organic Farming


Sofia, November 13 (BTA) - Stockbreeding, crop husbandry and
organic farming will be assigned priority in the work of the new
team of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Agriculture and
Food Minister Dessislava Taneva told a news conference here on
Thursday. These priorities will help catch up on the uneven
development of the different agricultural sectors which were not
sufficiently supported when Bulgaria acceded to the EU, Taneva
specified. In her words, a balanced farming policy will be
pursued, the diversification of the various sectors will be
supported, and an effort will be made to make farming
competitive. The Ministry's new team seeks to achieve
sustainable rural development. Small and medium-sized farms will
be supported so as to stop the depopulation of small
settlements.

Taneva also presented her Political Cabinet, in which all four
coalition partners in the new government are represented. Vassil
Groudev, Deputy Minister for European Policy and Rural
Development Programme, was Minister of Agriculture and Food in
the caretaker cabinet of Georgi Bliznashki. The two other deputy
ministers, Tsvetan Dimitrov (Stockbreeding, Crop Husbandry and
Food Safety) and Georgi Kostov (Forests), served as deputy
ministers of agriculture and food in the previous GERB cabinet
(2009-2013). The other members of the Political Cabinet are
Reformist Bloc MP Roumen Hristov, Prof. Ivan Stankov of ABV and
Peter Petrov of the Patriotic Front.

The Ministry said that the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA)
is the main culprit for the failure to cope with bluetongue.
Because of this, on Wednesday Taneva ordered the dismissal of
BFSA Deputy Director Radoslav Karabadjakov.