Agriculture

On Oct. 31, 2014, a small bus carrying seasonal agriculture workers drove into a curve and fell into a ditch. The vehicle had twice as many passengers as its capacity; bodies and injured people were scattered around and 17 people died. 

A dog-owner in the northwestern province of Eski?ehir picked a fight with local shopkeepers after kicking a stray cat that had attacked his dog before returning to the scene with a gun to threaten the men. 

The unidentified man was out for a walk with his dog in central Eski?ehir when a stray cat suddenly attacked his pet dog around midday on July 4. 

Twenty-five percent of the vegetables and fruits we eat contain pesticides ? in other words, chemical residue, at a level much higher than acceptable, Akdeniz University has said. In a study the university has been conducting for three years, it was found that the rate of contaminated vegetables and fruit were increasing every year.

Romanian farmers could receive compensations from the state budget this year, to the extent to which the drought damages the crops, unless the European Commission rejects this measure, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Daniel Constantin, informed on Monday.

Food prices are 20 percent higher than the global average in Turkey due to speculative price-hiking, said ?emsi Kopuz, the head of the Food and Beverages Associations Federation of Turkey (TGDF), adding the country should use imports if it wants to reach its year-end food inflation target of 9 percent. 

Global food prices in May fell to their lowest since September 2009 with declines in cereals, dairy and meat products outweighing slight increases in oils and sugar, the United Nations' food agency said on June 4.

Bulgaria's Deputy Agriculture Minister Vasil Grudev has reported a great interest in the 2014-2020 edition of the EU operational program Rural Development.

In a Sunday interview for the Bulgarian National Radio Grudev informed that a total of 2400 projects worth BGN 1.1 B had been submitted under the program since April 14.

The European Commission on Tuesday approved a Rural Development Programme for Romania, RDP, aimed at improving the competitiveness of the EU farming sector, caring for the countryside and climate, and strengthening the economic and social fabric of rural communities by 2020.

The number of livestock holdings for cattle, sheep and goats, and pigs in Bulgaria fell by 34% on an annual basis in 2014, according to a media statement of Bulgaria's Agriculture Ministry.

Bulgaria's Agriculture Ministry published statistics on livestock by November 2014.

The index of producer prices in agriculture in the first quarter of 2015 decreased by 5.1% on the year, according to data of Bulgaria's National Statistical Institute (NSI).

The crop output index decreased by 5.6% and the animal output index - by 4.6%.