site.btaNearly 7,000 ha Damaged by Hail Since Start of 2019

May 21 (BTA) - The areas damaged by hail storms since the
 start of 2019 total 7,000 ha up to this moment, Agriculture,
Food and Forestry Minister Dessislava Taneva said Tuesday in
Svishtov (North-central Bulgaria), quoted by her Ministry in a
press release. She explained that the necessary actions have
been taken in the regions where the weather conditions allow,
and commissions from the regional agricultural directorates are
already  evaluating the losses.

Taneva noted that the areas declared for aid under the direct
payments campaign, which is currently running, total about 3.8
million ha for the whole country, and a total of 107,000
applications have been submitted up to this moment.

The Minister said that farmers whose crops were 100 per cent
damaged will be compensated through the state aid for
compensating farmers' losses for completely destroyed crops as a
 result of natural disasters or adverse weather conditions. The
compensation is higher for crops under insurance. The budget for
 the aid will total 4 million leva.

Taneva, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov and the director of
Fire Safety and Civil Protection Chief Directorate visited two
villages damaged by the strong hail storms, Morava and
Dragomirovo.

"The anti-hail protection currently covers a total of 1,700 ha
of nearly 5 million ha arable land. The cloud seeding mode with
planes will be possible when a national system is built to cover
 all of the territories. For the system to work, there needs to
be a shared financial responsibility and consensus between the
State and the farmers," Taneva noted. RY/TH