IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/amu/wpaper/2013-08.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What Makes a Farmer? The Limited Expansion of Commercial Farming Among Bulgarian Smallholders

Author

Listed:
  • Mieke Meurs

Abstract

Post-socialist restoration of property rights brought expectations that small commercial farming would expand, raising smallholder incomes. However, commercial farming remains limited among smallholders in many places. This paper uses interviews with Bulgarian smallholders to analyze the decision-making process related to land use. Land holders differ in their goals for farming and these differences are associated with land use. Some landholders adjust their goals toward more income-generating uses as they experience better-than-expected returns, while others are content with more modest returns. But few seem willing to give up farming altogether. If goals differ, many farmers adjust slowly from a starting point strongly influenced by local history, and few exit farming altogether, more complete development of property rights, markets and contracting systems alone will not result in wider adoption of commercial farming. While commercially-, and even growth-oriented smallholders may emerge, significant smallholder land will remain in less productive uses for some time.

Suggested Citation

  • Mieke Meurs, 2013. "What Makes a Farmer? The Limited Expansion of Commercial Farming Among Bulgarian Smallholders," Working Papers 2013-08, American University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:amu:wpaper:2013-08
    DOI: 10.17606/njab-2503
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.17606/njab-2503
    File Function: First version, 2013
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17606/njab-2503?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gächter, Simon & Herrmann, Benedikt, 2011. "The limits of self-governance when cooperators get punished: Experimental evidence from urban and rural Russia," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 193-210, February.
    2. Davidsson, Per, 1989. "Entrepreneurship -- And after? A study of growth willingness in small firms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 211-226, May.
    3. Mathijs, Erik & Swinnen, Johan F M, 1998. "The Economics of Agricultural Decollectivization in East Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(1), pages 1-26, October.
    4. Talip Kilic & Calogero Carletto & Juna Miluka & Sara Savastano, 2009. "Rural nonfarm income and its impact on agriculture: evidence from Albania," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 139-160, March.
    5. Gogodze, Joseph & Kan, Iddo & Kimhi, Ayal, 2005. "Development of Individual Farming in Georgia: Descriptive Analysis and Comparisons," MPRA Paper 11721, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Tom Hertz, 2009. "The effect of nonfarm income on investment in Bulgarian family farming," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 161-176, March.
    7. Hausmann, Ricardo & Rodrik, Dani, 2003. "Economic development as self-discovery," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 603-633, December.
    8. Deininger, Klaus, 1995. "Collective agricultural production: A solution for transition economies?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(8), pages 1317-1334, August.
    9. Engel, Christoph & Weber, Elke U., 2007. "The impact of institutions on the decision how to decide," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(3), pages 323-349, December.
    10. J. Taylor & Irma Adelman, 2003. "Agricultural Household Models: Genesis, Evolution, and Extensions," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 33-58, January.
    11. Wise, John & Yotopoulos, Pan A, 1969. "The Empirical Content of Economic Rationality: A Test for a Less Developed Economy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(6), pages 976-1004, Nov./Dec..
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johan F. M. Swinnen & Liesbeth Dries & Karen Macours, 2005. "Transition and agricultural labor," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 32(1), pages 15-34, January.
    2. Laura Barasa & Bethuel K. Kinuthia & Abdelkrim Araar & Stephene Maende & Faith Mariera, 2023. "Nonfarm entrepreneurship, crop output, and household welfare in Tanzania: An exploration of transmission channels," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 762-792, July.
    3. Mathijs, Erik & Swinnen, Johan F.M., 1997. "Agricultural Decollectivization in Central and Eastern Europe," 1997 Conference, August 10-16, 1997, Sacramento, California 197062, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Hohfeld, Lena & Waibel, Hermann, 2013. "Investments of Rural Households in Northeast Thailand and the Future of Small Scale Farming," Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, Humboldt-Universitaat zu Berlin, vol. 52(3), pages 1-20, August.
    5. Benjamin Davis & Paul Winters & Thomas Reardon & Kostas Stamoulis, 2009. "Rural nonfarm employment and farming: household‐level linkages," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 119-123, March.
    6. Erik Mathijs & Liesbet Vranken, 2001. "Human Capital, Gender and Organisation in Transition Agriculture: Measuring and Explaining the Technical Efficiency of Bulgarian and Hungarian Farms," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 171-187.
    7. Mathijs, Erik & Vranken, Liesbet, 2000. "Farm Restructuring And Efficiency In Transition: Evidence From Bulgaria And Hungary," 2000 Annual meeting, July 30-August 2, Tampa, FL 21886, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    8. Jehovaness Aikaeli & Martin Julius Chegere & John Rand, 2023. "Complementarity and substitutability between farm and nonfarm activities: Evidence from agricultural households in Tanzania," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 89-111, February.
    9. Laurence Amblard & J.P. Colin, 2009. "Reverse tenancy in Romania: Actors' rationales and equity outcomes," Post-Print hal-00454533, HAL.
    10. Stefan Mann & Laure Latruffe & Werner Hediger, 2010. "On labour productivity to deliver private and public goods –the influence of off-farm income," Working Papers SMART 10-09, INRAE UMR SMART.
    11. Rozelle, Scott & Swinnen, Johan F.M., 2000. "Transition And Agriculture," Working Papers 11948, University of California, Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    12. Rizov, Marian, 2004. "Shift To Individual Farming And The Productivity Growth Of Transition Agriculture," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20116, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    13. Mathijs, Erik & Noev, Nivelin, 2002. "Commercialization and Subsistence in Transaction Agriculture: Empirical Evidence from Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania," 2002 International Congress, August 28-31, 2002, Zaragoza, Spain 24786, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. E. Mathijs, 2002. "Micro-economic analysis of farm restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe: an overview of major results," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 48(5), pages 189-196.
    15. Rizov, Marian & Gavrilescu, Dinu & Gow, Hamish & Mathijs, Erik & Swinnen, Johan F. M., 2001. "Transition and Enterprise Restructuring: The Development of Individual Farming in Romania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 1257-1274, July.
    16. Thiele, H., 1998. "Die unterschätze Dimension der Vermögensauseinandersetzung in der Dekollektivierung des ostdeutschen Agrarsektors: eine Probit-Analyse der Gesetzesverstöße," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 34.
    17. Muller, Malte & Rommel, Jens, 2018. "Should I Stay or Should I Go? A Behavioral Approach to Organizational Choice in Tajikistan’s Agriculture," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 43(3), September.
    18. Angelo Antoci & Luca Zarri, 2015. "Punish and perish?," Rationality and Society, , vol. 27(2), pages 195-223, May.
    19. Eduardo Fernández-Arias & Charles Sabel & Ernesto H. Stein & Alberto Trejos, 2016. "Two to Tango: Public-Private Collaboration for Productive Development Policies," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 94716, February.
    20. Jeffrey Frankel, 2014. "Mauritius: African Success Story," NBER Chapters, in: African Successes, Volume IV: Sustainable Growth, pages 295-342, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bulgaria; smallholder; agriculture;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:amu:wpaper:2013-08. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thomas Meal (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.american.edu/cas/economics/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.