The development of extension services in Bulgaria and needs of sheep and goat farming

摘要

As a consequence of political changes in Central and Eastern European countries, the old "socialist" structures in the agricultural sector in Bulgaria have been disrupted. Multitude of individual farmers, leaseholders and companies took their place. To cope with the new reality, the Ministry of Agriculture undertook actions to build National Agricultural Advisory System -adequate structure for serving the new subjects and organizations. At the beginning of 1997, 98.89% of the sheep and 99.95% of goat population are in the private sector. According to the official statistics in Bulgaria, sheep and goat keeping is concentrated in small family farms (486 thousand sheep farms and 374 thousand goat farms). This is a favourable environment for the implementation of a "Extension services" system in the small ruminant sector of Bulgaria. Developing new sustainable production and breeding strategies in sheep and goat farming involving farmers is necessary. Pilot-projects and common research with the rest of Central and Eastern European Countries is suitable for this purpose. All factors which could lead to sustainability of the small ruminant sector have to be profoundly investigated.