THE COMPETITIVENESS OF AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS IN BULGARIA
Abstract
In an effort to fill the existing gap regarding the definition of the competitiveness of agricultural holdings and the ways to measure it, the present research applies a holistic approach in the assessment of the competitiveness of agricultural holdings in Bulgaria as a whole, as well as in terms of their different specialization. Despite its importance and the continuing debates on the topic, there is still no consensus on what the competitiveness of farms is; how to measure the competitiveness of different organizations in agriculture; what the absolute and comparative competitiveness of different types of farms is; which are the critical factors for increasing the competitiveness at the current stage of development, etc. The multi-criteria assessment found that although the level of competitiveness of Bulgarian farms is overall good, more than a third of all farms in the country show a low level of competitiveness. This can largely be attributed to their low adaptive potential and economic efficiency. The most competitive farms are those specializing in the beekeeping sector, followed by field crops, mixed livestock and mixed crop production, while farms specializing in grazing livestock are the least competitive. The proposed approach should be improved and applied more widely and periodically, increasing its accuracy and representativeness. The latter requires close cooperation with producer organizations, the National Agricultural Advisory Service (NAAS) and other stakeholders, as well as improvements to the agricultural information collection system in the country.
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References
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