The irrigation system for agriculture in Bulgaria must… Much has been written on the subject of irrigation, but the effect is absent or insignificant. Dam, water – but for irrigation or hydropower… Ivaylo Tonev, former manager of “Irrigation Systems” spoke to FAKTI. EAD - branch Haskovo.
- Mr. Tonev, the subject of irrigation is a big one, but little is said about it. Why…
- Because it's an uncomfortable topic. And because the right decisions keep eluding us. The only operator for providing irrigation water to farmers is “Irrigation Systems” EAD and as a trading company it carries out a commercial activity, namely “transfer of water for irrigation”, for which service farmers pay a price per cubic meter. The irrigated acres that the company is able to serve by 2024 are in the order of 5-6 million, of which in recent years it has actually served requests of about 300 thousand acres. Irrigation water is an economic tool, not a means of commerce. This should be clear.
- And as a trading company “Irrigation systems“ does it make a profit?
- Irrigation revenues do not even cover the company's salary fund, which is why the state provides it with funds from the state budget under the "Protection of nature from the harmful effects of water /OPVVV/" in order for it to exist.
- Without the money from the state…
- It doesn't work. There is no money even for salaries.
- But the company reports minimal profit?
- With these volumes of irrigation and budget funds, the commercial company reports minimal profits at the end of the year. If at all one can talk about profit in the situation that the targeted financing from the budget under the OPVVV is the largest annual income, and this is contrary to the commercial activity being carried out.
In the current year 2024 of “Irrigation systems“ EAD was granted a loan from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MAF) in the amount of 45 million BGN. With them, the enterprise must pay off the sites implemented under the Program for the Development of Rural Areas - sub-measure 4/3, with the European financing under the measure being 75%, and the remaining 25% at the expense of the commercial company. This 25% will initially be covered by the loan granted by the Ministry of Health. Last month, Minister Takhov announced his intentions to increase the irrigated areas in the country by about 2.5 million acres, for which funds will be sought from the state – BGN 1.2 billion. It can be seen from everything that has been said so far that the irrigation development policy led by the current managers in the Ministry of Agriculture is a complete disaster and is completely devoid of economic justification.
- This is not the first time we talk to you about the topic, but why are no solutions found?
- Because they don't want to hear, they don't want to read another point of view. And so two main questions come to the fore:
- how will the commercial company return the received loan, considering the data from its financial result?
- will the number of users of the service increase after the proposed huge investment of funds in increasing the irrigated areas?
The way in which irrigation has been managed for years, and in particular the current actions and proposals of the Ministry of Agriculture, will not motivate and predispose to the practice of competitive irrigated agriculture. The proposals made in this way lead to damage to every Bulgarian citizen and create grounds for corruption, because they are devoid of economic justification. It is clear from the beginning that part of the loan cannot be returned. It is also clear that the lack of irrigated agriculture is not due to the lack of irrigated land. The granting of unsecured loans as well as the spending of money from the budget without economic justification should be brought to the attention of the Bulgarian prosecutor's office. The “Irrigation Systems” The 2023 EAD shows that approximately 1 billion cubic meters of water from irrigation dams was used for power generation and only 300 million cubic meters for irrigation. Also, water losses in the realized amounts of water for irrigation are about 100%.
The path to modern, developed and competitive irrigated agriculture is through subsidized irrigation water on the model of Greece and Romania, and the management of the process is by the Land Reclamation Agency, and it is important to exclude the possibility of trading irrigation water.
As drainage - ie. protection of nature from the harmful effects of water, and irrigation should be a service of general economic interest. Then every lev invested in land reclamation will go directly to the farmers using water for irrigation, who with their work will create food independence and income in the budget through the country's economy.
The refusal of the institutions to see the solution can be explained by corruption and dependencies. The bigger problem is the silence of the large agricultural associations, which should protect the interests especially of their small and medium-sized members, who are engaged not only in grain production, but also in irrigated agriculture.