site.btaUPDATED Agriculture Ministry Consultative Council Focuses on Land Relations

At its first meeting, the Consultative Council on Foods with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food discussed the possibilities for changes in the regulations related to land relations, with the aim to have Bulgarians consume more locally produced foods, Minister Kiril Vatev told journalists after the end of the meeting.

The Minister and relevant Deputy Minister Georgi Toshev participated in the council. Representatives of various branch organizations also took part in the meeting on land relations.

Vatev pointed out that the topic of land relations affects all farmers. The problems on this topic have been accumulating for more than 30 years, even with the return of agricultural land within real limits and the processes that have been developing so far.

Vatev said that the next Advisory Council will be on the issues of milk and milk products, then - on fruits and vegetables, then - meat and meat products, honey, technical crops, vines and wine, essential oil crops, etc.

Deputy Minister Toshev said that at the first meeting of the Council, rules for its work were adopted. In a month and a half, there will be a new meeting of the Consultative Council. He added that then there will already be concrete proposals for changes in the legal framework of land relations.

Vesselina Ralcheva from the Bulgarian Bioproducts Association brought up topics related to the use of the municipal and state land fund, with the so-called "unclaimed lands" as a significant resource with which the State can help the development of sectors that are important for the country.

Dimitar Zorov, Chairman of the Management Board of the National Union of Cattle Breeders in Bulgaria, expressed hope that in the future there will be predictability for agricultural producers and simplification of administrative procedures.

Yulia Kuyumdzhiyska, vice-president of the United Bulgarian Livestock Breeders, said that land relations are one of the means that could lead to the progress of livestock breeding in the country. She noted issues related to the cadastre, but also pointed out that problems related to mistakes made in the cadastral plans should also be considered.

Bulgarian Agrarian Chamber Chairman Kostadin Kostadinov recalled that land relations are the beginning of the agro-food chain and expressed hope that the Council will solve most of the problems on the subject.

Stefan Asenov, executive director of the Bulgarian Association of Agricultural Landowners, pointed out that too many problems have accumulated in the last 33-34 years, including with the restoration of land within real limits, the lack of compaction, rearrangement and grouping of plots, with irrigation , the cadastre, the cadastral maps and the register, alienation and easements, as well as with agroecology.