BY signing the Agriculture Sector Adjustment Loan (ASAL) 2 agreement, Bulgaria undertook to stop subsidising water prices for irrigation farming from 2004, Agriculture Minister Mehmed Dikme announced last Friday.
He was speaking in Parliament during question time, in reply to a question about the growing problems of rice growers in the country following an increase of water prices for irrigation.
Dikme said that the discontinuation of water price subsidies was a serious problem that should have been raised earlier when Parliament discussed ASAL 2, but now that it had been agreed, it had to be implemented.
According to Dikme, the contemplated water price increase was minimal - by a quarter of a stotinka, the fractional unit of the Bulgarian currency, a cubic litre.
He called on all farmers involved in irrigation farming to set up associations because this was the only way for the Government to assign to them the irrigation system and make them its owners.
Dikme said that a meeting with rice growers had been scheduled to discuss the problems with irrigation. He said that State Agriculture Fund was releasing 200 000 leva in subsidies to rice growers to mitigate the effect of the higher water prices, as the amount of the subsidy is possible to be increased even before the end of this year.
Last year about 3800 hectares were used for rice and Bulgaria was trying to get from the EU a quota of 10 000 hectares, Dikme said. For this reason the Government was trying to increase the subsidies of the Agriculture Fund, and next year the more expensive water will be fully offset by additional financing.
Another additional financing measure, coming from the European Union, is expected to support Bulgarian farmers.
A working group of European Commission experts started work last week on the forthcoming accreditation of six new measures under the Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (SAPARD), the Agriculture Ministry announced.
The commission is expected to work for about 10 to 15 days. The new measures will become effective in early April.
One of them has to do with the establishment of producers and wholesale markets. Another one is related to forestry farming: afforestation of agricultural lands, investment in forestry, and the processing and marketing of forestry products. The third measure aims to organise production.
Two measures have to do with the implementation of programmes for modernisation and development of rural regions and improvement of their infrastructure. The sixth measure has to do with improvements in vocational training.
This brings the total number of SAPARD measures in which Bulgaria is participating to nine.
Bulgaria has gained a wealth of experience in preparing for and implementing SAPARD, Dikme said. He noted the fast headway Bulgaria had made by launching the three main measures of the National Plan for Development of Agriculture and Rural Regions in 2000-2006, which is already producing results.
Under the first three measures, 398 projects worth nearly 148 million euro had been approved, and 124 projects have been completed and paid up, Dikme said.
He was speaking in Parliament during question time, in reply to a question about the growing problems of rice growers in the country following an increase of water prices for irrigation.
Dikme said that the discontinuation of water price subsidies was a serious problem that should have been raised earlier when Parliament discussed ASAL 2, but now that it had been agreed, it had to be implemented.
According to Dikme, the contemplated water price increase was minimal - by a quarter of a stotinka, the fractional unit of the Bulgarian currency, a cubic litre.
He called on all farmers involved in irrigation farming to set up associations because this was the only way for the Government to assign to them the irrigation system and make them its owners.
Dikme said that a meeting with rice growers had been scheduled to discuss the problems with irrigation. He said that State Agriculture Fund was releasing 200 000 leva in subsidies to rice growers to mitigate the effect of the higher water prices, as the amount of the subsidy is possible to be increased even before the end of this year.
Last year about 3800 hectares were used for rice and Bulgaria was trying to get from the EU a quota of 10 000 hectares, Dikme said. For this reason the Government was trying to increase the subsidies of the Agriculture Fund, and next year the more expensive water will be fully offset by additional financing.
Another additional financing measure, coming from the European Union, is expected to support Bulgarian farmers.
A working group of European Commission experts started work last week on the forthcoming accreditation of six new measures under the Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (SAPARD), the Agriculture Ministry announced.
The commission is expected to work for about 10 to 15 days. The new measures will become effective in early April.
One of them has to do with the establishment of producers and wholesale markets. Another one is related to forestry farming: afforestation of agricultural lands, investment in forestry, and the processing and marketing of forestry products. The third measure aims to organise production.
Two measures have to do with the implementation of programmes for modernisation and development of rural regions and improvement of their infrastructure. The sixth measure has to do with improvements in vocational training.
This brings the total number of SAPARD measures in which Bulgaria is participating to nine.
Bulgaria has gained a wealth of experience in preparing for and implementing SAPARD, Dikme said. He noted the fast headway Bulgaria had made by launching the three main measures of the National Plan for Development of Agriculture and Rural Regions in 2000-2006, which is already producing results.
Under the first three measures, 398 projects worth nearly 148 million euro had been approved, and 124 projects have been completed and paid up, Dikme said.
