/ world today news/ It is not an exaggeration to say that agriculture in Bulgaria became South American – large latifundia everywhere and the land stopped feeding people. But it feeds abundantly a certain circle of investors. The villages were deserted – there are no people. Go to neighboring Greece. You will see that in one village there are about a hundred tractors, in our country there are two tractors in three villages.
Otherwise, there is almost no uncultivable land in Bulgaria. Forests are even being cut down to make way for agriculture. This is also observed in the search for equipment in our country – wood processing machines are bought to clear areas. The problem of the land is that there is no quality irrigation. Twenty years ago, 90% of the areas in Bulgaria were provided with irrigation, but this is not the case now. Indeed, we also import irrigation machines, but it is too much for small farmers to take care of it themselves. In Spain, the farmer’s water tap is next to the plot – if he wants to use it, if he wants to – no. And in our country, “Irrigation systems” are a parasitic enterprise that can easily be closed down.
The other problem is that grain associations do not care about their members. Why? Because, for unknown reasons, they do not struggle to take the irrigation to their organizations on the principle of providing services as in the case of clusters. They can arrange for their members fertilizers, preparations at normal prices, but they don’t. They gather at some round tables to talk, and there are exposed and so unresolved questions. Not to mention that their leaders are suspiciously close to the rulers, whoever they are. From time to time one hears about a more special EU program, the information about which is not widely distributed among the people, and as a result, opportunities are provided for precisely these heads of associations to participate in it.
We are the only country in the EU where fuel excise duty is paid in full by farmers. For comparison, in neighboring Greece, oil is 40 cents for their farmers, and in our country – as much as it says on the column for everyone. There are no explanations why none of the farmers fought for better prices. Many of the disputes in agriculture began when the cooperatives were once destroyed and the lands were returned to the owners within real boundaries. The approach should have been different – for those who want to get their land, and for the others – to stay in the cooperatives. Why was it necessary to forcefully destroy a model that worked?
But… the big tenants definitely won. 95% of Bulgarian arable land is currently in the hands of 3% of farmers. They dictate the market. They can also shut down the state if they want. And they only work for the ships. When a ship arrives, the price of the product rises slightly.
Agriculture must be strategically protected, supporting the economy. Separately, no one asks the question where the subsidies that are given out go. Why, for example, have so many billions of leva entered this sector, and the price of bread has not budged. So what are these subsidies for? To make certain people richer? And they are rich – they are already buying helicopters and airplanes.
Modern agricultural machinery is in the pocket of these 3% of owners and tenants. We can list our clients by name. But we are not happy about this market situation. We prefer to have many but smaller clients. Because they don’t wear out the equipment so quickly, they don’t exploit it recklessly. The big one depreciates until the machine breaks – it works 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Unfortunately, real agriculture is not done in Bulgaria, but around us – Serbia, Macedonia, Greece. The small good thing is that new technologies can be applied in large-scale agriculture. But if in a few years the European funding is cut, be sure that 50% of our farmers will leave the market.
The sad thing is that with the givens that we have, Bulgaria could have been a flower garden. We destroyed the industry ourselves, and the state has abandoned its commitments.
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Emil Lupanov, Director of “Marketing and Sales” in a company for importing agricultural machinery.
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