Rural development program 2014-2020.

This Bulgarian Rural development program (or RDP) for the planned period from the year 2014 until the year 2020, in line with EU policy for rural development, has three objectives: First objective: Improving the competitiveness and balanced development of agriculture, forestry and manufacturing; Second objective: Preservation of ecosystems and sustainable management, use of natural resources in agriculture, forestry and food industry, climate change prevention and adaptation; Third objective: Socio-economic development of rural areas, providing new jobs, poverty reduction, social inclusion and better quality of life.
The program is structured around five thematic priorities + one horizontal: Priority 1 (horizontal, contributing all of the three objectives): Promotion of knowledge transfer and innovation; Priority 2: enhancing the competitiveness, promoting innovative farm technologies and sustainable forest management - allocated budget of EUR 372 million euro public funds (12.7% of all RDP funds); Priority 3: promoting food chain organisation, animal welfare and risk management - allocated a budget of 273 mln euro public funds (9.4% of all RDP funding); Priority 4: restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems - with budget of EUR 983 million euro public funds (33.7% of all RDP funds); Priority 5: promoting resource efficiency and supporting the shift toward a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy - allocated budget of EUR 430.6 million euro public funds (14.8% of all funds RDP); Priority 6: promoting social inclusion, poverty reduction and economic development - allocated budget of EUR 815.2 million euro public funds (27.9% of all RDP funds). The main priorities of the 2014-2020 BG RDP: Competitiveness of farms - despite the overall budget cuts of the programme, compared to the previous programming period, funds earmarked for investments in farms and processing plants are considerable and they have even increased compared to the budget during the previous programming period; Organic farming - another top priority in the - the budget has increased more than five times compared to the funds earmarked for organic farming in the previous; Fruits and vegetables & livestock - particular attention is paid by providing an advantage in the conduct of ranking in investment measures 4 and 6 and by announcing a target receptions, special for these sectors. Subject to the above priorities, the breakdown of the budget and performance, a division into total 17 measures, and one thematic subprogramme for small farms has been made.