Photo: Ekaterina Kyuchukova
For the third year in a row, farmers from the Plovdiv region are waiting for the state to fulfill its promise and restore the anti-hail rocket launch site in the village of Karadzovo. Farmers point out that the current anti-hail protection system does not cover all areas in the municipalities of Sadovo and Pervomai. Between the villages of Karadzovo and Katunitsa, more than 3,000 decares of vegetables and fruits are planted, which are not protected and are destroyed by hail in minutes, leaving producers without compensation and forced to cease their activities.
“There is a decision by the municipal council. There is a designated location for the construction of a rocket station and full understanding on the part of the municipal leadership. The state promised to build an anti-hail platform that would provide a wider perimeter of protection. But what has happened so far? Nothing!” commented Sadovo Mayor Dimitar Zdravkov. He recalled that two years have passed since the last disaster, and farmers have not yet recovered from the damage. According to Zdravkov, the lack of a rocket launch pad is a breach in the protection of farmers, who suffer serious damage with every hailstorm.
“When the cloud passes through the area, it destroys crops not only in the Sadovo area, but also in neighboring municipalities,”
say local farmers. There are over 500 registered farmers in the municipality of Sadovo who take on serious financial risks. “These are people who receive almost no compensation. They take out loans to restore their crops, and a single cloud can destroy their labor and production in minutes,” said Zdravkov.
Producers say that the situation is critical due to increasingly frequent climate disasters. “Compensation is symbolic—about 400 leva. Insurance is pointless because it doesn’t cover anything,” says a farmer who has lost his crop more than once due to hailstorms.
The restoration of the old rocket launch site in the area of Karadzovo village is entirely possible, says the mayor of Sadovo. All that is needed is equipment and two or three trained employees. This will also support small producers for whom growing fruit and vegetables is a livelihood, not a business. Otherwise, Bulgarian agriculture will be destroyed, local farmers say.
The municipality has sent letters to the institutions confirming its readiness to support the restoration of the missile site. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food has also received a request from farmers in the region to include the site in the village of Karadzovo in the national hail protection system.
Meanwhile, farmers warn that if urgent measures are not taken by the state, 2026 could prove disastrous for Bulgarian agriculture. “There have been promises for several years now, but no real action has been taken. No rocket launch pad has been built, nor have the riverbeds been cleaned. We are not protected from floods and hailstorms. We are left to fend for ourselves,” the farmers comment.
In the area of Pervomai and Sadovo, there are two active anti-hail missile sites—in Boliartsi and Popovitsa—which cover only part of the arable land but cannot cover an area of nearly 3,000 decares, planted mainly with fruit trees, vegetables, corn, and cereals.
