November 8 (BTA) - Afforested areas in 2021 will total nine per cent more than the 2020 figure. Some six million tree saplings are available to be planted.

Caretaker Agriculture, Food and Forestry Minister Hristo Bozukov, who on Monday took part in the planting of downy oak (Quercus pubescens) saplings, said that the aim is to show that efforts are being made for the maintenance of Bulgarian forests.

Bozukov took part in an autumn planting campaign in the village of Kroumovo organized by the Rila Monastery State Forestry Farm.

Bozukov has tasked the directors of state forestry farms to exercise control and render assistance in the purchase of firewood by members of the public. "People usually wait until the last possible moment and when firewood buying coincides with elections such as now, this is used as a mechanism to influence voters locally," Bozukov said.

He went on to say that legal amendments are necessary, which must be coordinated between the ministries of the interior, of finance and of agriculture, regarding the growing of cannabis for medicinal purposes. "Such a trilateral meeting is planned to be held next week because it is unreasonable that neighbouring Romania allows the processing of medicinal hemp while Bulgaria does not, and people are forced to make exports to Romania where one of the big cannabis processing companies is Bulgarian," Bozukov said.

Dwelling on the price of wheat, the Minister said it is "expensive enough, more than 430 leva/tonne". Bozukov said he has required from the Plants Growing Directorate to issue a bulletin on exports every week, so as to monitor the situation and avert imports of the commodity in the future. He said Bulgaria needs 1.7 million tonnes of wheat, up to one million tonnes of which are for human consumption, and the rest, to be used as animal feed and other purposes. DD/ZH