Bulgarian farmers who have been forced to destroy their livestock in an attempt to tackle foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), would be fully compensated for their loss, Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naidenov said on April 18 2011, reiterating Government commitment to provide full compensation.

But in mid-April, animals in Strandja region were "dying of starvation" because farmers have nothing to feed them with. Three months after the outbreak, compensation payments had yet to be made.

Farmers in the village of Fakia have grown so disillusioned with the process that they have lost faith in the authorities, saying they did not believe would will receive any help whatsoever, Bulgarian television channel bTV reported on April 18. 

Because of the quarantine imposed by veterinary authorities, farmers were not allowed to release their animals to graze freely, instead they were supposed to buy feed for the livestock, which quickly ran out because of excessive demand. Consequently, animals are starving, and many were dying, the report said.

"I don't need money. I need grain " Petar Kostadinov, a farmer, told bTV.

Meanwhile, State Fund Agriculture has promised that farmers who have applied for help would receive their first payment before Easter. The Agriculture Ministry initially said that it would compensate all of the affected farmers, but later amended its position to say that it would only provide assistance to those have registered.

But even for those who have registered for assistance, the compensation could not exceed 7500 euro over a period three years, the report said.

At the end of January, the Bulgarian Government said it would build a fence along the border with Turkey after a second FMD outbreak threatened local farmers with devastation.

Unhappy with the cumbersome and ineffective response from the Government, stockbreeders wrote a lengthy letter to Kristalina Georgieva, European Commissioner for international co-operation, humanitarian aid and crisis response, in which they demanded that they were provided with real assistance; furthermore, they demanded to know why the Government was hesitating and refusing to build a fence along the Turkish border after the first FMD outbreak in January.

Following the second outbreak in January, Bulgarian authorities hesitated about the fence project, with Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov saying there was "no need to spend money on the construction of a fence along the border," Dnevnik daily reported at the time.