Eco-management in Bulgarian agriculture - forms, efficiency, prospects

In this paper is presented a new approach for analysis and improvement of eco-centered management grounded on the assumptions of New Institutional Economics. Incorporating this new approach, we firstly identify the crucial ecological problems and risks in the Bulgarian agriculture. Afterwards, the efficiency of the market, private and public forms for eco-management applied in this sector is assessed. Finally, prospects and main challenges the eco-management faces in the conditions of implementation of Common Agricultural Policy of EU are given. Our analysis shows that the transformation of Bulgarian agriculture has changed cardinally the ecological condition as well as conduced for some new challenges such as: degradation and pollution of agricultural lands, pollutions of surface and underground waters, losses in biodiversity, significant greenhouse emissions, and so forth. A number of factors are reason for the failure of the market and private forms supposing the eco-management as: wrongly defined and enforced eco-rights, long process of privatization of agrarian resources, organization of farm activity within the structures unmotivated for long-term investments, low appropriation of particular eco rights and high uncertainty and asset specificity regarding eco transactions. The public intervention was necessary, which was not sufficiently complemented with efficient state, local and international intervention. As a result, the agrarian sustainability was significantly affected. The assessment of the feasible effect from the implementation of CAP of EU in Bulgarian conditions implies that main users of different new measures of support would be large farms. In the result of this, the differences in the income levels, technologies and eco results of particular farm, industries and regions will deepen up. Our analysis is backed also from the investigations of different type milk-producers from the region of Plovdiv and Pazardjic. The great faction of farms don't have enough capacities for the adaptation to the new requirements of EU for dairy livestock. The substantial part of dairy producers do not expect positive effect from the measures of CAP regarding their incomes, quantities, production technologies, investment level, product quality, access to public programs, improvement of cares toward environment, amelioration of animal welfare, development of infrastructure, possibilities for new incomes and social status of the farms' households.