Forward to the Past ? Agricultural Restructuring in Bulgaria
Prior to World War II, the majority of Bulgarian farms were very small, fragmented, and produced predominantly for their own consumption. By 1989, however, Bulgarian agriculture was organized in large-scale, mechanized farms, producing for national and international consumption. Many observers expec...
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| Veröffentlicht in: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/mediterranee, |
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| Hauptverfasser: | , |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprache: | Anglais |
| Veröffentlicht: |
Méditerranée
2010
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| Online Zugang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Zusammenfassung: | Prior to World War II, the majority of Bulgarian farms were very small, fragmented, and produced predominantly for their own consumption. By 1989, however, Bulgarian agriculture was organized in large-scale, mechanized farms, producing for national and international consumption. Many observers expected further radical changes after 1989, with wide-spread distribution of property rights in land, and market liberalization, leading to the emergence of western-style family farms.In this paper, we outline overall changes in patterns of land use, and then use survey data from the World Bank to examine patterns of agricultural land use by rural households. We find a small group of families engaged in limited commercial farming, and a small group which appears to have returned to subsistence agriculture. But the largest share of landholding households carry on the activities developed under socialism : they produce for personal consumption, to supplement some employment income. In conclusion, we consider some factors which might explain the lack of expansion of market production, in the context of unused land and labor. |
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