Sustainability of Bulgarian Farms during Reformed CAP Implementation

Hrabrin Bachev, Nina Koteva, Krasimira Kaneva, Dimitar Terziev, Dimitar Vanev

Abstract: The goal of this paper is to present results of the first large-scale study on integral, governance, economic, social, and environmental sustainability of Bulgarian farms in general and holdings of different juridical type, size, specialization and location during current EU CAP implementation. Initially, a framework for assessing farm sustainability is outlined which is based on incorporation of the interdisciplinary methodologies of New Institutional Economics, and Sustainable Development. That holistic framework includes a system of appropriate principles, criteria, indicators, and reference values for evaluating the individual aspects and the integral sustainability of farms in the specific Bulgarian conditions. After that an assessment is made on the overall, governance, economic, social, and environmental sustainability levels of Bulgarian farms in general and holdings of different juridical type, size, specialization and location. The assessment is based on a survey with the managers of 190 typical farms of different type carried out in the summer of 2016 with the cooperation of major professional associations and the National Agricultural Advisory Service. The study has found out that Bulgarian farms are with a good integral sustainability due to moderate governance and economic sustainability, and a higher social and ecological sustainability. There are considerable differences in the sustainability level of farms of different type – while Companies and Cooperatives are with a higher sustainability level, the Physical Persons and Sole Trades are with lower one. Furthermore, 30% of all farms are with low sustainability or unsustainable at all, including 34% of Physical Persons, a quarter of Sole Traders, 15% of Cooperatives, and almost 6% of Companies. There is also a significant variation in sustainability levels of farms with different specialization, size and location – e.g. 45% of holdings specialized in vegetable, flowers and mushrooms are with low sustainability or unsustainable as well as 57% of those with mix livestock specialization, a half of semi-market and a third of small-size holdings, 39% of farms located in mountainous regions with handicaps, and 40% of farms in South-West and 37% in North-West regions of the country. Finally, implications for further research, farm management and strategy formation, and improvement of public policies are withdrawn.

Keywords: economics sustainability; environmental sustainability; governance sustainability; integral sustainability; social sustainability

Date published: 2018-01-31