We have been protecting the interests of farmers for nine months, initiated processes to restore irrigation and finally confirmed state control over the food of Kapitan Andreevo. This was stated by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Kiril Vatev in a public video report for the work done by his team within the government of Academician Nikolay Denkov.
He pointed out that for the first time in decades a comprehensive approach has been taken to restore irrigated agriculture and rehabilitation of 24 canals of Irrigation Systems has started. “Irrigation is the number one priority in our work, because without water yields are low. Farmers’ access to irrigation water should be an obligation of the state, not a permissive regime,” the minister was emphatic.
Among the other achieved goals, Minister Vatev pointed out that the state control over food entering Bulgaria was finally established with the operation of the pesticide research laboratory at the “Captain Andreevo” checkpoint. It was renovated with BGN 2 million provided by the state budget and is equipped with the necessary laboratory facilities. The trucks now wait only the necessary technological time for the samples, or about 5-6 hours, instead of 2 days, as before, he pointed out.
During the last nine months, the team worked hard to attract some of the most famous Bulgarian scientists who are all over the world in agricultural science. “We have over 400 of these in the most elite laboratories and universities around the world. Our main goal is to connect science with practice in such a way that it is not clear where science ends and where practice begins,” the report to the public also notes.
Minister Vatev emphasized that our country continues to fight for the equalization of subsidies between Bulgarian producers and those in the old European member countries. “We protect the right of our farmers not to fall under the blows of unfair competition of imports from third countries,” he also said.
Regarding the farmers’ protests across Europe, Minister Vatev noted that they have three extremely valid reasons – the ambitious Green Deal, which has made the entire EU agriculture ineffective, the unfair competition of dumped imports from third countries and the unfair distribution of added value in agri-food chain from the field to the store shelf.
“Our team works extremely expertly. Checks will be a regular practice from now on. Through analysis, we look for the best prerequisites for solving problems. They are not just subsidies, on the contrary, there are other solutions that can make Bulgarian producers much more efficient,” concluded Minister Vatev.
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