Pleven District

an administrative and territorial unit in northern Bulgaria, on the central Danubian plain. Area, 4,200 sq km. Population, 350,000 (1973). The administrative center is Pleven. The district’s economy is industrial and agrarian; 60 percent of its industry is concentrated in Pleven. Among the leading branches of industry are the food and condiments industry and machine building. The former is represented by meatpacking, flour milling, fruit canning, sugar refining, and wine-making; the latter, by the construction of forging and pressing machines and foundry equipment, hydroturbines, electric transport vehicles, and instruments. Petroleum refining and petrochemistry are new industries that are developing near Pleven. An agreement has been concluded with Rumania concerning the construction of the Nikopol-Turnu Mǎgurele hydroelectric power system on the Danube.

More than two-thirds of the Pleven District is under cultivation, and one-fourth of the cultivated land is irrigated. In agriculture, the growing of grain and the raising of livestock are combined with the growing of industrial crops (sugar beets, sunflowers), vegetables (especially tomatoes), melons and gourds, and grapes. The district leads Bulgaria in the harvest of melons, gourds, and grapes. Wheat and corn account for two-thirds of the crops sown. There are approximately 400,000 head of sheep, 65,000 head of cattle, 188,000 swine, and 3 million fowl in the Pleven District.