Perspectives for the Cutting of Legumes in Bulgaria and Comparison with Other Countries in the World

The long term Agricultural Politics of the European Union is geared to supporting certain types of crop farmers and rural development as a whole. The new scheme of coupled support for protein crops forms part of the direct payments scheme and consists of additional support for areas covered by protein crops such as beans, lentils, chickpeas, peas, peanuts, soya, beans, alfalfa, safflower, pheasant, clover, lupine and lotus. In order to obtain support for these areas, the size of the area with protein crops should be at least 1/4 acre. The budget for protein crops is fixed each year, and it is divided into all eligible protein crops for the given year. It is important to note that some of the financed crops are widely used in the European Union and Bulgaria, while others are less known. The purpose of this article is to determine the extent to which the production of leguminous crops in Bulgaria and their types have been influenced by the introduction of the new scheme of tied EU protein crop support and to compare our country to other major countries producing legumes. On the basis of the analysis of the leguminous crops produced before and after the introduction of the support based on direct payments, a summary of how the operational programs and the direct payments by the European Union contribute to the real increase of the bean crops in the country and on the basis of comparison with other countries it is established which leguminous crops are most widely used for production and what are the possibilities for their future development in Bulgaria.