Agricultural cooperatives in Bulgaria during the transition period: A case study of ac “Plodorodie” in the village of Glavinitza

Abstract

As a result of the agrarian reform in Bulgaria, rapid agricultural restructuring occurs in the country, which contributes mainly to the creation of produsers agricultural cooperatives. According to a number of authors, these cooperatives faced serious problems, such as: lack of interest to make investments; limited self-funding; difficult crediting; reduced manager’s responsibility; ineffective control mechanisms; increased level of inter-group conflicts; participation of a large number of cooperative members with various interests; existence of old and insufficient farm machinery and equipment; parcelled-out land and ext.. In this paper we analyze the production activity of AC “Plodorodie”, the village of Glavinitza, and find out most of the problems described in the literature. However, in our casethe internal control mechanism worked out, and this prevented eventual liquidation of the cooperative