Assessment of System of Governance of the Agrarian Sustainability

Abstract

Despite its importance research on the governance of agrarian sustainability is still at the beginning in Bulgaria and around the globe. This paper suggests a holistic framework for analyzing and assessing the system of governance of agrarian sustainability. New Institutional Economics framework is incorporated and agrarian sustainability is as the ability of the sector to maintain its economic, ecological and social functions in a long-term. After that, a classification of the principle modes and mechanisms of governance is made including institutional environment, market and private, collective, public and hybrid forms. Next, it is presented a holistic approach for: identifying components and factors of agrarian sustainability; for assessing efficiency of individual modes and the system of governance as a whole; and for improving the system of governance of agrarian sustainability in contemporary conditions of Bulgarian agrarian development. Suggested framework is to be further discussed and improved. Consequently it could be used for identification and assessment of the specific mechanisms and forms of governance of agrarian sustainability in particular subsectors type of ecosystems, regions of the country, and agriculture as a whole. However, its application requires new type of micro and macro-economic data for agrarian agents’ preferences and behavior, activities and efficiency of farming organizations, effects and impacts on social, community and natural environment, etc.