site.btaAdditional Measures to Be Worked Out in Support of Agriculture

104 ECONOMY - AGRICULTURE - MINISTER - REMARKS

Additional Measures
to Be Worked Out
in Support of Agriculture


Sliven, Southeastern Bulgaria, November 15 (BTA) - Agriculture
and Food Minister Dessislava Taneva said on Saturday that her
Ministry and farmer organizations will work out additional
measures to support the agricultural sector, which, according to
Taneva, is going through its most difficult years.

The Minister was speaking to journalists in Sliven, where she
took part in observances of the 10th anniversary of the
Bulgarian-Greek milk products company Tyrbul.

She said the Consultative Council on Animal Husbandry will meet
next week for the first time since the establishment of the new
government and will discuss the crisis in the sector.

State Fund Agriculture (SFA) will disburse 70 million leva to
beneficiaries as soon as the national budget is promulgated, she
said.

Arrangements have been made to pay compensation to farmers for
damage caused by bluetongue disease, Taneva said, adding that an
initial amount of 300,000 leva was credited to the bank
accounts of the competent directorates. The Ministry's budget
has 1.5 million leva earmarked for such compensation payments
and another 2 million leva can become available after the
national budget is updated. A way will be found by the end of
next week to finish the job before the budget update, she
promised.

Taneva said that the first step of the new SFA management will
be to sign contracts for a backlog of over 2,000 projects left
over by previous SFA directors. Efforts should focus on the
campaign for direct payments next year and on preparing the
computer software necessary for the launch of the Rural
Development Programme, she said. LI/VE