State of the Environment
Bulgaria 2003
Soil
Bulgarian land and soil resources
With respect to the balance presented below /Fig. 1/, the biggest part of the total area in Bulgaria is covered by arable land – 6 376 481,7 ha or 57,4% of the country land; woodland covers 3 810 709 ha (34.7%). Fig. 3 shows that 74-78% of the total arable land is tilled, so 14-17% of the arable land are areas under irrigation, depending on the year referred to.
Fig. 2 Corine land cover
The agricultural land with changed purposes ranged between 650 ha in 1996 and 919 ha in 2001. Most of the lands with changed purposes are in 1999– 935 ha. These lands are removed from the agricultural land fund, by reason of losing their fertility and lack of land categorization.
Fig. 4 Agricultural land with changed purposes - Response Indicator
/Source: Ministry of agriculture and forestry 1994, 2000/
From all the 28 soil groups -determined by FAO, 20 are found in Bulgaria. Figure 6 shows the most current soil groups, which cover approximately 90% of the country.
Table 1 below shows the basic soil characteristics of the most current soil groups. Predominant soil groups have low acidic and neutral pH reaction. About 90% of the tillage lands have organic contents of 1 to 3%, approximately 60%- neutral pH and 70% heavy texture.
Last update on March 2003