Agriculture in Bulgaria

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Prior to

Bulgarians were employed in agriculture. The importance and organization of Bulgarian agriculture changed drastically after the war, however. By 1958, the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) had collectivized a high percentage of Bulgarian farms; in the next three decades, the state used various forms of organization to improve productivity, but none succeeded. Meanwhile, private plots remained productive and often alleviated agricultural shortages during the Todor Zhivkov
era.

Production

Bulgaria produced in 2018:

In addition to smaller yields of other agricultural products.[1]

Early collectivization campaigns

When the BCP came to power, Bulgarian agriculture consisted primarily of 1.1 million peasant smallholdings. The party saw consolidation of these holdings as its most immediate agricultural objective. It dismantled the agricultural bank that had been a primary source of investment for the agriculture and food processing sectors before World War II.

The first attempts at voluntary collectivization yielded modest results, partly because open coercion was impossible until a

Vulko Chervenkov used threats, violence, and supply discrimination to produce the fastest pace of collectivization in Eastern Europe
. Sixty-one percent of arable land had been collectivized by 1952. The process was declared complete in 1958, when 92 percent of arable land belonged to the collective farms. This ended the first phase of Bulgarian postwar agricultural restructuring.

Farm consolidation in the 1960s

At this stage, Bulgarian collectives were much smaller than the Soviet organizations on which they were modeled. To fulfill the ambitious goals contained in the

Theses (January 1959), for the Third Five-Year Plan (1958–60), further consolidation was deemed necessary. This process reduced the number of collectives from 3,450 to 932, and the average size of a collective grew from 1,000 to 4,500 hectares
.

In the late 1960s, an agricultural

amalgamation to prompt further consolidation of collective farms into APKs. By the end of 1971, all of Bulgaria's 744 collectives and 56 state farms had been merged into 161 complexes, most of which were designated APK's. These units averaged 24,000 hectares and 6,500 members. The consolidation continued until there were only 143 complexes in 1977. Several complexes were larger than 100,000 hectares, and twenty-five were between 36,000 and 100,000 hectares. In the short term, they were to achieve horizontal integration
by specializing in three or fewer crops and one type of livestock. In the longer term, they would be the basis for linking agriculture with manufacturing and commerce. On the political level, this consolidation was to be a symbolic merger of the agricultural and urban workers, who had remained quite distinct parts of the Bulgarian population since the nineteenth century, in defiance of the theory of the unified socialist society.

The new organizations never met the higher agricultural quotas of the late 1970s, however. For some products, yield did not keep pace with investment. Overall growth in agriculture continued to fall after the creation of the APKs. Also, the goal of freeing farm workers to take industrial jobs was not reached. On the contrary, the annual reduction in agricultural employment dropped from 4 to 2 percent while farm labor productivity declined. As a result, agriculture's share of gross investment in

Eighth Five-Year Plan
(1981–85) were an admission that too much had been expected from the constant tinkering process.

Reform in the 1980s

By 1982, the total of old and new APKs reached 296, the average size was halved to 16,000 hectares, and the management

surplus production
and to purchase their own supplies.

In the last Zhivkov years, the

foreign currency from exports. Even then, government delivery prices remained so low that state foodstuff monopolies received only the absolute minimum supply. In 1989, the exodus of 310,000 ethnic Turks
, many of whom had cultivated personal plots, also hurt agricultural output.

Despite these handicaps, the United States Department of Agriculture estimated that within Eastern Europe, Bulgaria was second only to Hungary in agricultural trade surpluses through 1987. After that time, however, agricultural output dropped so far that the country could no longer feed its own people. In 1990, the first rationing and shortages since World War II were the most obvious indications of this situation. Because of domestic shortages, export of several agricultural products was banned in 1990.

Two long-term policies strongly determined priorities in Bulgarian agricultural production after 1960. First, livestock was promoted at the expense of crop cultivation, mainly to meet export demand. Between 1970 and 1988, the share of livestock in agricultural production rose from 35.3 to 55.6 percent. As a result, less land was available for crops in that period.

attar of roses, used in making perfume
.

Role of private plots

After 1970, the only consistent contribution to agricultural production growth was

income taxes. More importantly, delivery prices increased for agricultural products. In the mid-1970s, a reduced work week for urban
workers and relaxed requirements for plot leasing encouraged weekend cultivation of personal plots by the nonagricultural population. Plot size limits were removed in 1977.

By 1982, personal plots accounted for 25 percent of Bulgaria's agricultural output and farm worker income. In 1988, personal plots accounted for large shares of basic agricultural goods: corn, 43.5 percent; tomatoes, 36.8 percent; potatoes, 61.5 percent; apples, 24.8 percent; grapes, 43.2 percent;

eggs, 49.4 percent; and honey
, 86 percent. The sales from plots to town markets meant that despite low overall agricultural growth rates in the 1980s, the urban food supply actually improved in many areas during the early and mid-1980s.

Post-Zhivkov agricultural reform

In 1991, privatization of agriculture was a top priority of the government of

Council of Ministers
was to oversee land distribution and arbitrate disputes, aided by a system of municipal land commissions.

As elsewhere in the Bulgarian economy, agricultural reform encountered stout resistance from entrenched local Zhivkovite officials. Pre-collectivization land ownership records were destroyed, and farmers were threatened or bribed to remain in collectives rather than seeking private farms. Although the Arable Land Law was widely hailed as an equitable and useful economic reform, its association with the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP, formerly the BCP) majority brought criticism from the opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UDF). Some farmers circumvented the law simply by seizing land. The government, meanwhile, announced that no state land would be redistributed before the 1991 harvest.

In early 1991,

rations had been cut by more than half; a grain shortfall of 1.7 million tons was expected; meat, withheld from markets until new government prices were announced, was very scarce and expensive in cities; and fertilizers for the year's crops were in very short supply. Western firms expressed interest in joint agricultural ventures in Bulgaria, but hesitated because of uncertainty about political and legal conditions for such projects. A new round of government pricefixing in February 1991, substantially raised food prices
but did restore supplies of some items.

Agriculture in Bulgaria in the 21st century

Bulgaria is currently the biggest producer of lavender[2] and rose oil[3] in the world. Nowadays, following agricultural products are in focus:

Plant products:

  • Cereals - wheat, barley, rye, oats, corn, rice, beans, lentils, alfalfa and others
  • Technical crops - oilseed rose, lavender, sunflower, canola, soybeans, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, cotton, fennel, parsley, hops, coriander and tobacco
  • Vegetables - tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, squash, zucchini, cabbage, onion, leek, garlic, eggplant, carrots, etc.
  • Fruits - apples, pears, apricots, peaches, plums, prunes, cherries, sour cherries, quinces, watermelons, melons, walnuts, hazelnuts, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, rosehips and others.
  • Viticulture - dessert and wine grape varieties, red and white.
  • Herbs - sighting and collecting various herbs,
  • Mushrooms - growing edible mushrooms
  • Beekeeping - extraction of honey.

Livestock products - in Bulgaria grown cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese and other. Yield total of approximately 250,000 tons of milk, 211 thousand tons of meat and 1.2 million eggs.

Fisheries - practiced catch of sea and freshwater fish and fish farming in ponds. Bred and hunted aquatic organisms such as sea snails, clams and shrimp.

Forestry - In recent years, the total area of forest areas in the country is steadily increasing at the end of 2013 it amounted to 4,180,121 hectares, or 37.7 percent of the country. From 1990 to 2013 the total area of forest areas has increased by 407 628 ha or 10.8%. The largest share of forest area in Bulgaria occupy forests resulting from natural regeneration - 70.4%, while the share of forest crops is 20.9%, while natural forests - 8.7%. Bulgarian forests are characterized by extremely rich biodiversity of coniferous and deciduous tree species.

Hunting and game breeding in Bulgaria. The game breeding in Bulgaria includes officially permitted for hunting animals and birds in the country, living freely in the wild, specifically in the temperate deciduous forests that extend over the mountainous regions of Bulgaria . It includes big and small game and predators. Hunting in national parks and protected areas in Bulgaria is prohibited. Game in Bulgaria - Big game deer, deer, fallow deer, roe deer, wild boar, deer, chamois, bears and capercaillie. Small game - rabbit, pheasant, partridge, Thracian partridge, quail and Polish nutria. Predators - wolf, jackal, fox, wild cat, marten, badger, polecat, raccoon dog, wandering wild dogs, roaming wild cats, magpie, hoodie Rook daw and others.

References

  1. ^ Bulgaria production in 2018, by FAO
  2. ^ [Bulgaria tops lavender oil producers ranking Bulgaria tops lavender oil producers ranking]. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ^ Bulgarian rose oil keeps its top place on world market: BNR

Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division.

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