Assessment of the direct payments impact on Bulgarian wheat

Kina Ivanova

Abstract: In the article has been made an assessment of the most widely applied CAP scheme – direct payments per area and their impact on the wheat development. It is proved that they have positive impact and stimulate the area enlargement, the average yields and the wheat production. The bread-baking qualities of the grain increase. In result of the subsidizing, Bulgaria transforms in world producer and exporter of wheat. It is established that direct payments activate the rent relations and raise the rent and land prices. Some serious problems of this scheme implementation have been revealed: deterioration of the crop rotation, due to the excessive enlargement of cereals’ area, which proft of the large-scale production; onesided restructuring of agriculture, favouring the extensive grain and oilseed crops, which are strongly mechanized and extreme restriction of fruits and vegetables. In this structure, 84% of benefciaries obtain 2.4% of subsidies, i. e. the most powerful producers are supported to the detriment of small and mediumsized producers, which are the goals of EU CAP.

Keywords: areas; CAP; direct payments; wheat

Date published: 2017-10-03