The future of intensive agriculture lies is the management of large plots of farmland and land-consolidation, the Chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Agricultural Land Owners Staiko Staikov said within the frameworks of the annual economic forum held in Sofia under the title Next Year’s Business Plan. Basically, land consolidation is the reallocation of parcels with the aim the landowners to obtain larger parcels at one or more places in exchange of their former and smaller fragmented plots. In Staiko Staikov’s words, most investors in farmland were buying plots actively when they started their businesses, but land management and lease were left behind, because the relations between landowners and tenant-farmers were unsettled by the national legislation and some farmers were cultivating plots without paying any rent to the real owners whatsoever. One year ago the authorities made legislative amendments which obliged both parties in the process to sign contracts.

In Staiko Staikov’s words, the price of the larger plots is significantly higher than the one of the small and fragmented land. Currently the average size of the arable land in Northern Bulgaria is 0.8 hectares and the average size of the land situated south of the Balkan Mountain Range is 0.5 hectares, which makes cultivation and land management more difficult:

“All members of the Bulgarian Association of Agricultural Land Owners have a common goal linked with the future consolidation of the agricultural lands. Land consolidation would enable us to change the management and tilling of these lands and farmers would be able to grow perennial plants for instance. In 2015 we have fulfilled for the first time 5 large land-consolidation projects in Bulgaria - in Studena and Momina Tsarkva in Southern Bulgaria and in Shumen, Smyadovo and Drumevo in Northern Bulgaria. Land consolidation in Bulgaria is voluntary, just like in any democratic country. The state also takes active part in the process. It provides the necessary information, expert help, maps, etc. However, it does not participate in the land consolidation process with its lands. Most people do not trust this process and mainly the large companies are partnering in land-consolidation projects.”

In Staiko Staikov’s view, the difficulty of the process is due to the fear of the small land owners that they would receive plots with poorer quality, if they join such consolidation.

Ten years ago lease in Bulgaria amounted to only EUR 50 per hectare. Thanks to the legislative changes made in the field of land lease and the improved relations between landowners and tenant farmers, the ground rent has been constantly growing.

“This is a normal process, because the price of farmland has been on the rise, too. Moreover, many account holders in the bankrupt Corporate Commercial Bank invested their money in land. The growing EU subsidies and the expected rise of this type of financing in the new programming period 2014-2020 also make arable land more expensive, because most Bulgarian farmers have already built their modern farms and currently they can afford to spend more money on new land. Taking into consideration all of the abovementioned factors, we believe that in 2016 the price of agricultural land would continue to grow and the price of rent will remain high.”

The price of arable land in Northern Bulgaria is much higher than the one in the southern parts of the country. Highest prices were registered in Razgrad, Silistra and Dobrich districts, where one hectare of land costs nearly EUR 10,000. This is due to the high demand and the limited supply of land on the market. Since 2009 the price of Bulgarian agricultural land has been constantly on the rise. The average annual increase amounts to 10%-15%. In Mr Staikov’s view, this trend will continue in 2016 as well. Staiko Staikov believes that the efforts of the Bulgarian Association of Agricultural Land Owners would not be in vain and that many small land owners and companies possessing arable land would eventually join the process of land consolidation. Thus, Bulgaria’s agriculture can get closer to the European standards.

English: Kostadin Atanasov