The national census of agricultural holdings in Bulgaria is to begin on September 1, 2020. At the instruction of the European Union, agricultural census is carried out once in 10 years.
More than 300,000 agricultural holdings participated at the census in 2010 and now nearly 200,000 are included in the lists, Nikolai Marinov, Director of the Directorate General for Agriculture and Regional Policy at the Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry told BNR.
The number of agricultural holdings in Bulgaria decreased by 100,000. This was due to the depopulation of the villages, the optimization and consolidation of these holdings. In 2007, there were 30 million decares of arable land in this country, whereas now there are 34 million decares, Nikolai Marinov pointed out.
Animals, utilized agricultural land and equipment, workforce and livestock buildings will be subject to sensus. Information about the utilization of livestock manure will be collected as well. Farmers will also provide information on which measures of the Rural Development Programme they have applied for.