utrients, increased from
about 49,000 tons in 1956 to 842,000 tons in 1968 but thereafter
declined sharply to only 692,000 tons in 1969 and 635,000 tons in 1971.
In 1972 the fertilizer supply improved by a mere 10,000 tons. The bulk
of the decline was in phosphates and potash, imports of which were
drastically curtailed after 1968, presumably because of the shortage of
foreign exchange.

The supply of pesticides also depends very largely upon imports.
Deliveries to agriculture rose from less than 10,000 tons in 1960 to
almost 12,900 tons in 1965, declined to 11,150 tons in 1969, and then
surpassed the 1965 supply by 300 tons in 1971. The need for a drastic
increase in the use of pesticides and fungicides is indicated by the
official estimate that annual losses from crop diseases, pests, and
weeds amount to from 150 to 200 million leva.

Despite the progress made, agricultural technicians continue to call
attention to the persistence of faulty practices in all phases of crop
production--practices that tend to lower crop yields and retard
agricultural growth. Traditionally a single variety of wheat has been
grown throughout the entire country, despite variations in soil and
climatic conditions. Although yields generally rose with the successive
introduction of better varieties, they remained low and of inferior
quality in areas poorly adapted for the cultivation of a particular
variety. Specialists have stressed the need for diversification of
varieties, particularly under conditions of regionally defined
agroindustrial complexes.

A task force for scientific and technical aid to agriculture, formed by
the government at the end of 1965, uncovered the appearance and rapid
dispersion of new grain diseases. Dry rot, which had assumed significant
proportions in 1961, caused the most severe losses of wheat in 1970 and
1971, when 1.2 million acres were affected by the disease, mainly in the
northern grain-growing part of the country. Wheat flower blight, long
known in Bulgaria, became particularly widespread in 1965 after the
introduction of a new wheat variety highly susceptible to that disease.
Losses from this source reached about 15 to 20 percent.

Propagation of diseases has been aided by faulty cultivation practices.
Excessively heavy seeding has been used increasingly to compensate for
inadequate soil preparation. The resultant overly thick stands of grain
are prone to lodging, which facilitates the spread of disease