Organic production – efficiency and effectiveness in the context of agroecology
Authors:   Agricultural academy – Sofia, Institute of agricultural economics – Sofia, Mitova Diliana 
Published: April 2024

Over the past 70 years, farming in Europe has changed thanks to policies, technologies and practices that aimed to ensure a stable supply of food at affordable prices. But this success was achieved at the cost of an increasingly deteriorating environment. It is therefore important to highlight the potential of more sustainable alternatives. Organic farming (OF) is an integral part and instrument of the state policy in the field of agriculture in terms of sustainable management of natural resources, compliance with high standards for food quality and safety, and animal welfare. At the same time, OF contributes to the development of viable rural areas. That is why it is a key priority in the agricultural development policy in the EU and in the Republic of Bulgaria and one of the highlights of the CAP for the next program period. Organic production benefits nature and society as a production system that contributes to the reduction of air, soil and water pollution; to increase biodiversity, strengthen the sustainability of agriculture, to ensure healthy food and clean nature for current and future generations, and as such it organically fits into the requirements of the new CAP. The research aims to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of organic production in our country, in the context of the changes, development and dimensions that the implementation of the CAP has on agriculture and more specifically on agroecology. For the purposes of the study, data for the efficiency are compared for Bulgaria and on average for the European Union, by calculating the efficiency coefficient of OF. The calculation of the coefficients of efficiency and effectiveness is done in a way borrowed from Ivanov (Bachev et al., 2020), and the efficiency is considered in relation to the role of the provided compensatory payments (subsidies) in the sector by year. The years from 2010 to 2019 were mainly tracked, and for some of the indicators, data up to 2020 was used. The study is based on and is part of the work on the research project “Perspectives for Bulgarian agriculture and rural areas in the context of CAP 2021 – 2027 and the EU Recovery Plan”, developed by a team led by associate professor Bozhidar Ivanov, IAE, Agricultural Academy – Sofia in 2021 – 2022. The research used the methodology developed for the purposes of the above-mentioned project, using a corresponding algorithm, combining quantitative and qualitative methods, literature research, comparative, institutional and multi-criteria analysis, method of groupings, value-measurement and qualitative analysis, method of relative comparative assessment, indicator method, including efficiency and effectiveness coefficients (Ivanov et al., 2023). The current research establishes that organic production in our country has a changing performance during the period 2010 – 2019. Efficiency – increasing in almost all indicators until 2014 – 2017, and decreasing thereafter. This is calculated on the basis of public support for the sector and shows that support plays an essential role in the development and effectiveness of OF, but also that the change of the funds spent is not always synchronized and in accordance with the expected and obtained results, like a number of others factors also have their important role in increasing the efficiency of the sector. The efficiency of the OF sector is relatively low, although it shows an upward trend (starting, however, from a low base). The share of OF in UAA is still small and there is a need for further support and promotion of OF in our country in order to increase this share and reach the EU average level. The compensatory support per ha and animal, in combination with the provided priority support for investment measures and the higher intensity of financial support are an incentive for farmers to switch to organic production, as a result of which both the areas in the control system and the number of organic producers grew many times in the studied period.