4.3 “Mixed” Operators
5. Conclusion
The purpose of this analysis was to identify the Bulgarian operators’ main motivational interests to enter the organic sector. Once they are known, those interests can be addressed if there is an attempt to attract new entrants and to expand the organic sector in Bulgaria.
The motivation to enter the sector is the result of a symbiosis of “internal” factors – the personal “worlds” of operators (educational and professional resources, personal characteristics and skills, absence or existence of personal belief in the importance of following organic principles) – and external factors – economic (market) and institutional (political) characteristics of the environment. The interaction between these groups of factors forms three main types of operators according to their motivational profi les: “pragmatists”, “idealists”, and “mixed”.
Although it is descriptive, the analysis conducted here essentially shows that economic and instrumental motives are among the most important in the complex set of factors determining the individual operator’s decision, and they should be addressed in developing the political framework regulating the organic sector in Bulgaria. As the data show, idealistic motives were the most important to the fi rst operators who entered the sector, but as the latter developed, economic profi t, marketing abroad, and compensatory payments became the main factors attracting new entrants. Ensuring stability of the institutional environment in terms of economic indicators and political mechanisms can lead to lower perceived risks for operators, greater predictability, and hence, greater likelihood of entry into the organic sector. Being among the most common ones, economic and instrumentally rational considerations are comparatively shorter-term and more unstable motivators for entry into the sector than the idealistic motivators, insofar as they entail dependence upon the dynamic of institutional (political and economic) life in Bulgaria. Since the organic sector depends not just on domestic but also on EU agricultural policies, as well as on global economic conditions, the “idealistic” motivators are key in ensuring sustainability over time. Although they are less common among operators, the “idealistic” motives prove to be more “powerful” in ensuring the sustainability and development of the sector precisely because of their potential to attract operators to the organic farming principles.
In Bulgaria, as we have seen, the main idealistic motives for entry into the organic sector are care for individual human health and environmental protection, as well as desire to follow the family’s traditional farming practices. To further strengthen and develop the organic sector, awareness of the public benefi ts it delivers in terms of social health, biodiversity conservation and rural development should be raised both among conventional farmers so as to attract new entrants, and among the main social groups in order to increase public acceptance of the sector and to widen the group of those who believe in the values of organic farming. Addressing both economic/instrumental and idealistic, value-oriented motives in an attempt to engage and integrate new followers of the organic ideas would be a successful strategy for policymakers if the goal is growth of the organic sector in Bulgaria, as the relevant political documents and statements postulate. Such an approach would ensure more complex and sustainable development of organic farming in Bulgaria, which will have both short-term and long-term effects.
Although the motivators for entry into the organic sector in Bulgaria have not been studied to date, even this strictly limited (in scope and contribution) analysis could serve for formulating the main steps in planning the future development of the sector at the political, economic, and social levels. It can also serve as a starting point for more in-depth research on the complex set of motivational interests among different groups of operators, aimed at providing a clearer picture, and as a reference point about the weight of the different factors within this complex set of motivators for entry into the organic sector.
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