Governance Sustainability of Bulgarian Agriculture
Hrabrin Bachev
Abstract: A need to include “the fourth” Governance pillar in the concept for understanding and the assess-ment system of (overall and) agrarian sustainability is increasingly justified in academic literatu-re and finds place in the frameworks of government, international, private, etc. organizations. In Bulgaria, like in many other countries,
practically there are no comprehensive assessments of the governance sustainability of agriculture and its im portance for the overall agrarian development. The aim of this study is to assess the governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture at national and sectoral level.
Multiple Principles, Criteria and Indicators assessment of the Governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture indicates that the Overall Governance Sustainability is at a “Good” but very close to the “Satisfactory” level. Besides, there is a considerable differentiation in the level of Integral Governance sustainability of individual
subsectors. What is more, the individual indicators with the highest and lowest sustai-nability values determine the “critical” factors enhancing and deterring the particular and integral Governance sustainability of evaluated agro-system. Last but not least im-portant, results on the integral agrarian sustainability assessment based on micro(farm) and macro (statistical, etc.) data show some discrepancies which have to be taken into
consideration in the analysis and interpretation, while assessment indicators, methods and data sources further improved.
Having in mind the importance of holistic assessments of this kind for improving the agrarian sustainability in general, and the Governance sustainability of agriculture in particular, they are to be expended and their precision and representation increased. The later requires improvement of the precision through enlargement of surveyed farms and stakeholders, and incorporating more “objective” data from surveys, statistics, ex-pertise of professionals in the area, etc.
practically there are no comprehensive assessments of the governance sustainability of agriculture and its im portance for the overall agrarian development. The aim of this study is to assess the governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture at national and sectoral level.
Multiple Principles, Criteria and Indicators assessment of the Governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture indicates that the Overall Governance Sustainability is at a “Good” but very close to the “Satisfactory” level. Besides, there is a considerable differentiation in the level of Integral Governance sustainability of individual
subsectors. What is more, the individual indicators with the highest and lowest sustai-nability values determine the “critical” factors enhancing and deterring the particular and integral Governance sustainability of evaluated agro-system. Last but not least im-portant, results on the integral agrarian sustainability assessment based on micro(farm) and macro (statistical, etc.) data show some discrepancies which have to be taken into
consideration in the analysis and interpretation, while assessment indicators, methods and data sources further improved.
Having in mind the importance of holistic assessments of this kind for improving the agrarian sustainability in general, and the Governance sustainability of agriculture in particular, they are to be expended and their precision and representation increased. The later requires improvement of the precision through enlargement of surveyed farms and stakeholders, and incorporating more “objective” data from surveys, statistics, ex-pertise of professionals in the area, etc.
Keywords: agricultural subsectors; agriculture; assessment; Bulgaria; governance sustainability
Date published: 2021-06-25
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