Four years watching buffaloes without a single lion's support - the story of Stoyan Stoyanov

Stoyan Stoyanov is a livestock farmer from Ahtopol who has been raising cows for more than two decades. Four years ago, he decided to expand his farm and thus invested in purchasing buffalo – animals that he greatly likes. Instead of expected support, however, Stoyanov encountered a problem that surprised him: in Bulgaria, there is no scheme to support buffalo in the meat production sector, which practically leaves him out of all subsidies. "I have been involved in livestock farming since 2001. I have cows that are in the meat production sector and four years ago I also bought buffalo. Since then, however, I have not received any subsidies for them – neither direct payments, nor Ukrainian aid, nor de minimis – nothing," he explained to Agri.BG. According to Stoyanov, the main problem is that there is no separate category for buffalo in the meat production sector in the national legislation and support schemes. This forces farmers like him to prove production through milk – and ...