-
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.
-
Marina Nikolova
Motivation for Development and Effects of Organic Farming
Summary:
The development of organic farming in Bulgaria is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Agriculture and Foods which works to maintain the trend of increasing the number of organic farmers, the amount of organically cultivated lands and the diversity of organically grown crops and animals. The positive effects of organic products and foods for human health, protecting the environment and preserving natural resources have been greatly popularized lately. This is also due to the fact that bigger groups and communities, both in the European Union and in Bulgaria, are interested in healthy eating and sustainable use of natural resources. This leads to the necessity of highly motivated farmers and obtaining good economic results from the introduction of organic production approaches in modern ecologically-oriented farms.
-
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.
