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Pencho Penchev
More about the Food Supplying Problem
Summary:
One of the most important issues facing humanity is the food supplying problem. There are two ways to produce food: a) natural way which is not in contradiction with environment and b) unreasonable way which threatens human existence. The article focuses on the second one and displays the expected negative consequences: irretrievable negative changes of the planet which in turn threaten human existence. In order to avoid them, the article shows opportunities to meet food needs which are consistent with natural conditions.
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Hrabrin Bashev
Agrarian Contracts, Process of Contracting and Contractual Order
Summary:
In modern conditions, much of the relationship between agrarian agents, and agricultural activity in general, is governed by some forms of contract. However, economic analyzes of agrarian contracts in Bulgaria are incidental, limited to individual types of contracts, and detached from the process of contracting and contract imlementation, and dominating institutional order. This article continues the presentation of a holistic A-M-P-O approach to the economic analysis of contracts and contractual relations of agrarian Agents by conducting an economic analysis of the available contractual Means, the agrarian contracting Process, and the resulting contractual Order. First, a classification of the principle types of contracts is made and their economic characteristics, possibilities and disadvantages for governing the relations of agrarian agents are analyzed. After that, the stages of the agrarian contracting process is analised, the critical factors of transaction costs presented, and a matrix for determining the most efficient governing form, depending on the combination of critical dimensions of agrarian transactions, suggested. Finally, the specific contractual and governance order resulting from the contractual process is analyzed, and the stages of the process of improving contractual relations in the agrarian sphere are presented.
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Plamen Petrov
The Agricultural Sector in Bulgaria - Convergence and Current Trends
Summary:
The specifics of the common agricultural policy in Europe and the reforms organized in the chronicle of the Bulgarian economy over the last 30 years require a rethinking of the market positions of economic agents, having their permanent presence in the agricultural business of the country. Despite the fact that the Operational Programs of the European Structural Funds have the character of a net donor for the strengthening of the industry during the two programming periods, there is still an underdeveloped potential for proper market orientation, weak convergence and competitive form to make it a monolithic foundation of economic reality, opposing the crisis effect of a number of other sectors.
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Violeta Blazheva
Evolution of EU Common Agricultural Policy
Summary:
The year 2012 marked fifty years of the EU Common Agricultural Policy – the basis for European integration providing food security and dynamic agriculture for European citizens for five decades. This paper focuses on its evolution and achievements of the reforms carried out. These reforms were designed to provide quality food to citizens at reasonable prices and a decent standard of living for farmers and their objectives are still valid today. Over the years, European agricultural policy has helped to overcome three key stages: leading Europe from scarcity to abundance of food, meeting the new challenges associated with the sustainable use of natural resources, and expanding the role of farmers in rural development. The reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy aims to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of European agriculture and rural development.
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Hrabrin Bashev
Why and How to Evaluate the "New" Governance Sustainability of Agriculture
Summary:
In Bulgaria, like in many other countries, there is practicaly no studies on the governance sustainability of agriculture and its importance for overall agricultural development. This study tries to fill the gap and suggesrs a holistic framework for understanding and assessing the governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture. The new approach is “tested” in a large-scale study to assess the governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture at national, sectoral, regional, ecosystem and farm levels.
It is proved that it is important to include the "missing" Governance Pillar in the assessment of the integral sustainability of agriculture and the sustainability of agricultural systems of different types. The multi-principal, multi-criteria and multi-indicator assessment of the governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture found out that the overall sustainability is at a “good” but close to the “satisfactory” level. In addition, there is a significant differentiation of the levels of integral governance sustainability of the different types of agro-systems in the country. Moreover, the individual indicators with the highest and lowest sustainability values determine the “critical” factors enhancing and deteriorating the particular and integral governance sustainability of the evaluated agro-system.
Given the importance of holistic assessments of this type for improving agricultural sustainability in general, and the governance sustainability of agriculture in particular, they should be expanded and their accuracy and representativeness improved. The later requires increasing precision by increasing the surveyed farms and stakeholders, and using more "objective" data from surveys, statistics, professional experts in the field, etc.
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Hrabrin Bashev
To the Question of Economic Study of Agrarian Contracts
Summary:
Arround the globe, a huge number of theoretical and empirical studies and publications related to agrarian contracts of various types have been made. In Bulgaria, the studies of economic contracts in general, and of agrarian contracts in particular, are incidental, with individual researchers applying "their own" definitions and methodologies, which are often contradictory, non-comprehensive and highly debatable. The article attempts to answer several important academic and practical questions: what is an economic contract, what is the difference of the economic approach compared to other (legal, sociological, etc.) approaches to the study of contracts, what is the role of economic contracts in agrarian governance, why there is such a huge variety of contracts used by agents, etc. The achievements of the interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics are adapted and a holistic framework for the economic understanding and analysis of agrarian contracts and contractual relations in agriculture is presented. The system of agrarian contracts is seen as a complex, networked and multi-layered system, involving a variety of agrarian and non-agrarian Agents, who govern their relations and activities through various contractual Means (types of contracts), participating in the agrarian contractual Process, as a result of which in each particular time period in a given country, region, sub-sector, type of farming, agro-ecosystem, etc. dominates a certain contractual and governance Order. Like the economic analysis of the system of agrarian governance, the holistic analysis of the system of economic contracts is to apply an A-M-P-O approach, which includes an analysis of all its elements - Agents, Means, Process, and Order. The article offers an adequate economic definition of agrarian contracts and characterization of their place in the system of agrarian governance as bilateral or multilateral agreements related to agricultural production and services. After that, an economic characterization of the agents participating in the contractual relations is made, paying particular attention to their bounded rationality and tendency to opportunism. These two characteristics related to "human nature" are the reason for the existence of transaction costs and the need to choose an effective governing (contractual) form to increase the "rationality" of agents and protect against possible opportunism in their relationships.
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Snezhana Blagoeva
Preliminary Evaluation of the Effect of the European Green Deal on the Agricultural Sector in the EU
Summary:
The European Green Deal is a new strategy for the overall development of the EU, which horizontal nature leads to the creation of regulations and requirements simultaneously affecting several economic sectors and policies. Assessing the effect of the Green Deal on the agricultural sector requires looking at the overall situation created since its adoption. The purpose of the article is to review the individual elements of the Green Deal and the regulations based on it, in order to identify the potential effects on the agricultural sector. The assessment should consider not only the direct impact on production, exports, competitiveness and farmers' incomes, but also on food prices and food availability. The contribution of agriculture to climate, natural resources and biodiversity should also be taken into account.
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Tsvetelina Kabakchieva
Organic Farming - the Future of the Agricultural Economy of Bulgaria
Summary:
Organic farming owes its emergence, existence and principles to the nature itself, while the fundamental rule of its practice is to be in harmony with it, without harming it. In fact, it is a new perception of the environment and a new attitude towards its protection, both now and in the future. Organic farming combines the best environmental practices, high biodiversity, the conservation of natural resources and high production standards based on natural substances and processes. It also corresponds to a specific market that responds to specific consumer demands while at the same time it provides public goods that are in terms with environmental protection, animal welfare and rural development.
