Land Market With Fragmented Landownership Rights in Bulgaria: An Institutional Approach

The land restitution in Bulgaria led to a severe fragmentation in land ownership. This has an impact on the agricultural development and land market. The article investigates the land transactions on the sale and rentals markets. In order to explain the processes three new institutional economic theories will be employed: property rights theory, transaction costs theory and agricultural contract theory. First, the article reviews the appropriateness of each theory, and second, results of conducted survey in two regions of Bulgaria with different degrees of land fragmentation. Key words: Bulgaria, Contractual arrangements, Land fragmentation, Land market, Land transactions, Property rightsBulgaria, Contractual arrangements, Land fragmentation, Land market, Land transactions, Property rights, Land Economics/Use,

New knowledge networks of small-scale farmers in Europe’s periphery

Funding for this research was provided by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 311994, and the Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Programme (2011–2016).In this paper we assess the types of knowledge networks utilised by small-scale farmers in four case studies (located in Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom). We focus on knowledge acquired to inform three new activities being undertaken by study participants: agricultural production, subsidy access and regulatory compliance, and farm diversification (specifically agritourism). Findings demonstrate that the new knowledge networks are dominated by different forms of expertise: formal ‘agricultural advisors’ identified in the case studies primarily offer codified managerial knowledge through centralised networks, suggesting that state-funded services for small-scale farmers are largely embedded in traditional, linear models of knowledge transfer. Production and diversification knowledge is exchanged through ‘distributed’ and ‘decentralised’ networks, where a range of actors are involved across varying geographical distances. Findings highlight issues associated with the quality and independence of both ‘free’ and paid advice, as well as the importance of combining tacit and codified knowledge for credibility. In all four cases, we found that small-scale farmers utilise formal advisory services primarily for accessing subsidies (e.g. completing application forms), rather than acquiring production knowledge. The authors argue that by utilising the state funding allocated to advisory services for small-scale farmers primarily to enable these farmers to access subsidies, important opportunities for innovation by both advisors or farmers can be lost.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Land Market With Fragmented Landownership Rights in Bulgaria: An Institutional Approach

The land restitution in Bulgaria led to a severe fragmentation in land ownership. This has an impact on the agricultural development and land market. The article investigates the land transactions on the sale and rentals markets. In order to explain the processes three new institutional economic theories will be employed: property rights theory, transaction costs theory and agricultural contract theory. First, the article reviews the appropriateness of each theory, and second, results of conducted survey in two regions of Bulgaria with different degrees of land fragmentation. Key words: Bulgaria, Contractual arrangements, Land fragmentation, Land market, Land transactions, Property right

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF STATE AND DEVELOMENT OF BEEKEEPING IN BULGARIA

The aim of this paper is to analyze the trends and development of Bulgarian beekeeping. The study is based on official statistical data of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and fieldwork study for the period 2009-2012. To achieve the above aim, first of all, the authors trance the changes in the production of honey until 2012 and second they analyze the distribution of farms according the number of bee colonies and prophylactic methods of their feeding up. In addition, in study was revealed the reasons for distribution of the bee colonies and identified the important problems facing the sector in term of the legislation, protection of the bee colonies, the control of the importing the queen bees and market development of the bee products. The one of main results of the study showed that the number of bee colonies in the country decrease even highly expert-oriented production of honey in Bulgaria

Is there still a role for advisory services for linking research and practice or is it bypassed in new configurations of European AKIS?

Is there still a role for advisory services for linking research and practice or is it bypassed in new configurations of European AKIS?. 22. European Seminar on Extension and Education (ESEE). 31. Annual AIAEE Conferenc