Strategic plan for the development of agriculture and rural areas for the program period 2023-2027.

This Bulgarian Strategic plan for the development of agriculture and rural areas for the programmed period from the year 2023 until the year 2027 aims to promote the sustainable development of the agricultural sector by supporting viable farm income and enhancing competitiveness. It envisages various interventions for improving the living and working conditions in rural areas and responding to the needs of young and small farmers. The Plan will also support sustainable farming practices and envisages a significant contribution to the protection of natural resources, including by promoting investments that target them. The Bulgarian Plan will reinforce efforts to reduce the income gap between the agricultural sector and the rest of the economy. It will also strive to reduce the income gap between small and medium-sized farms compared to larger agricultural holdings. This will be achieved by redistributing 10% of direct payments to small and medium-sized farms for their first 30 hectares of agricultural land. An upper limit of EUR 100 000 will also be established for the amount of support an individual farmer can receive. In order to ensure a balanced territorial development, the Plan will support agricultural holdings in mountain regions and areas with natural or other specific constraints. For the first time, the Plan sets a framework for risk and crisis management in the agricultural sector by envisaging investments for the prevention of natural disasters and diseases and for insurance instruments. Increasing the productivity and competitiveness of the agricultural sector is another major objective of the Plan. Traditional sectors such as ood, dairy and fruit and vegetables are in decline due to various socio-economic and environmental factors. The Bulgarian Plan will dedicate EUR 616 million to boost these sectors by providing support linked to production. Lastly, the Plan will support a stronger cooperation between farmers and the processing sector and will improve the market access of small farmers by encouraging the development of short supply chains and local markets. Bulgaria’s Plan aims to address a number of environmental and climate challenges that the agricultural sector is facing. Interventions are aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, increasing organic carbon in soils, improving the quality of soil and water, producing energy from renewable resources, supporting low-intensity agricultural practices and sustainable management of forests. The Plan introduces eco-schemes under which farmers can be paid for voluntarily implementing environmentally- and climate-friendly practices that go beyond legal requirements. The proposed eco-schemes envisage, for example, better crop rotation, use of climate resilient plant varieties, maintenance and improvement of biodiversity and the ecological infrastructure. The Plan will also focus on the development and expansion of the area under organic farming considering the current very low share (2.25%). To foster this development, the Plan provides incentives for organic land cultivation, beekeeping and livestock breeding, envisaging support for 200 380 hectares. Standards for good agricultural and environmental conditions (GAECs) will contribute to the achievement of the environmental and climate objectives, as they establish more demanding basic requirements for the CAP implementation. For example, to protect the soil, the Plan ensures a minimum soil cover of over 80% of arable land in sensitive periods by including also permanent crops. Farmers will also have to apply crop rotation as this practice helps preserve soil potential, reduce water pollution and increase biodiversity.
This text is divided into eight main thematic Sections. Titles of these sections are listed as follows: Section I. Needs assessment; Section II. Intervention strategy; Section III. Characteristics common to several interventions; Section IV. Direct payments, sector specific interventions and country specific rural development interventions; Section V. Plans for target values and financial plans; Section VI. Management and coordination system; Section VII. Characteristics ensuring cap modernization.