A Holistic Approach for Assessing the Quality of AgriFood Governance

A new holistic framework for an adequate understanding of the system of agri-food governance and for assessing its quality, incorporating interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics, is suggested. Agri-food governance is defined as a complex system including (1) agri-food and related agents; (2) rules, forms, and mechanisms that govern their behavior, activities, and relations; (3) processes and activities related to making managerial decisions; (4) a specific social order resulting from the governing process; (5) outcomes of the functioning of the system in terms of realization of sustainability goals. For assessing the quality of governance, a multidimensional hierarchical system of well-defined Good Governance Principles, Criteria, Indicators, and Reference Values is presented and experimented. The first-in-kind evaluation of the quality of agrarian governance in Bulgaria, based on statistical data and experts’ assessments, found that it is at a moderate EU level. In terms of Sustainability, it is at a good level while for Process, Means, and Order the level is satisfactory. The best performance is for principles of Equity and Solidarity, and Good Working Public Sector while the poorest one is for Working Private Sector and Stakeholder's Involvement. In the latter direction, combined public, private, and collective efforts are to be made to improve agri-food governance in the country.