Funds have been provided to compensate for hail damage, and applications for damaged areas will be submitted from tomorrow, May 28, until June 9, 2025, inclusive. This was stated by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Dr. Georgi Tahov in the municipality of Nova Zagora at a meeting with agricultural producers who suffered from the hail that fell over the weekend. Minister Tahov announced that anti-hail protection in the country will be expanded with new missile sites and generators, including on the territory of the Sliven district.
He pledged that all inspections for damaged areas in the municipality will be carried out absolutely correctly by the municipal services “Agriculture“ and the regulations will be complied with, in the event of 100% failed areas, up to 80% of the costs incurred will be paid according to the technological map for the respective crop.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food reported that last year there were also damages in the region, but this year the damage is greater, especially in the area of the village of Byal Kladenets, but also in the villages of Pet Mogili, Mlekarevo, Novoselets, Prokhorovo and Elenovo. According to preliminary information, the total area of affected agricultural lands in the municipality of Nova Zagora is about 60 thousand decares, sown mainly with wheat, sunflower, barley, corn and coriander.
Minister Tahov called on farmers to quickly submit applications by June 9, so that the employees of the municipal services “Agriculture“ to conduct timely field inspections and the State Fund “Agriculture“ to pay compensation in a short time.
He commented that the construction of 25 missile sites has been designed in addition to the currently operating ones. Ground-based silver iodide generators are planned to be deployed in the districts of Kyustendil, Pernik, Yambol and Burgas.
According to data from the Executive Agency “Fighting Hail“, since the beginning of the active hail protection season, which started on April 15, 80 impacts have been carried out in the country so far, 309 hail clouds have been processed and a total of 5,723 missiles have been launched. For comparison, for the same period last year, 66 impacts have been carried out and 238 cells with 3,470 missiles have been processed. During the same period in 2023, the impacts carried out were 65 against 227 cells with 2099 missiles. There are changes in the climate with long periods of drought, followed by rains and hail, and an increase in the number of supercells every year, said Eng. Valeri Tsenov, Executive Director of the Agency.
The meeting with agricultural producers was also attended by MP Maria Belova, the regional governor of Sliven Chavdar Bozhurski, the mayor of Nova Zagora Galya Zaharieva, experts from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural and Forestry Administration, representatives of the regional directorates “Agriculture“ in Sliven and Yambol.
After the meeting in the municipality of Nova Zagora, Minister Tahov visited farms affected by the hail in the village of Byal Kladenets and in the city of Yambol.