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With a population of slightly below 8 million, Bulgaria
occupies the south-eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula
and a crossroads of major routes from Europe to Asia.
The country is firmly set on its way to a market economy
and democracy and during the last five years the economic
environment in Bulgaria has continuously improved.
Large-scale privatisation and restitution of agricultural
and forest land has been successfully completed as
a result of which the main part of the economic activities
today is being performed by the private sector. 90
% of farming land in Bulgaria is suitable for organic
farming and yet environmental or sustainable farming
practices remain under developed.
In general, the agricultural holdings in Bulgaria employ
more than 350,000 persons and 1 million persons use it
as an additional income source. 84% of the farm managers
have no formal education in agriculture and there remains
a shortage of specific skilled labour in occupations
in the field of new technologies in manufacturing and
services, modern technologies and equipment in agriculture,
entrepreneurship and management. The use of ICT and computers
in farming is minimal.
The educational and consulting services market has
started to develop and many former research and training
centres have been displaced by rapidly forming, market-oriented
private and state companies, offering educational services
in different spheres, practical vocational courses,
management and foreign language training. More then
500 institutions and private companies are registered
in the national employment office for organising of
vocational training courses in different specialties,
but even so the private vocational education market
is still underdeveloped.
Bulgaria is planning to join the European Union in
2007 and this provides an additional incentive for
farmers to improve their level of competence and professional
skills as well as to, improve yields and quality, develop
added value activity, find new market niches and organise
farmers associations.
Due to the diversity of topography and climate, a
wide range of microclimatic conditions exist in Cyprus
that permit diversified crop production and a wide
range of products to be grown although the sectors
contribution to the gross domestic product declined
from 8.3% in 1983 to 3.6% by 2001. There are almost
Cyprus 700,000 persons in Cyprus and of which only
7% work in agriculture and part time farming is an
important component of the agricultural industry.
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Cyprus has a solid market orientated
economy and in May 2004 Cyprus joined the European Union
A recently released rural development plan prepared by
the Ministry of Agriculture outlines priorities as being
the modernisation, re-organisation and adaption of agricultural
holdings, support to small sale processing units and
marketing networks, the formation of producers associations,
organic production and the provision of vocational training
and extension services to farmers.
Although the Agricultural
Research Institute undertakes applied and basic research
and the department of agriculture offers vocational
training to farmers through three Agricultural Training
centres
there are few training programmes or materials currently
available aimed at encouraging farm entrepreneurship
and innovation and available in Greek and few farm
businesses use computers or software tools for farm management.
There is an increasing awareness and interest in environmental
issues and sustainable farming practices in Cyprus
and diversification is becoming increasingly important
for farmers and communities that need to supplement
their agricultural incomes. The Agroplan project will
focus on these issues for Cyprus as well as for quality
assurance, ICT, planning, decision making, monitoring
and control problems
The rural sector is a very important for sector Greece,
not only in economic terms, due to its high contribution
in the gross national product (the highest in Europe)
and export trade, but also in social terms because
of the big number of people it employs - 17% of the
economically active population. However the workforce
in the rural sector is decreasing at a faster pace
than the population of rural areas and this is further
compounded by the ageing of the population and the
reduction of family sizes.
The average cultivation area covers 4.5 hectares (compared
to an EU average of 16.5 hectares) and often composed
of 6 or more fields. Land leasing, mechanised agriculture
and irrigation is on the increase but the level of
diffusion and usage of computers and information technologies
in rural areas is low. Only 15% of persons in rural
areas have a personal computer and less than10% use
the internet, although interestingly more than 55%
have a mobile phone
More than 80% of the existing arms in Greece have
passed to their owners through heritage and more than
50% following retirement, but even so agricultural
activity is more and more taking on the characteristics
of a business and the farmer profile requires not only
technical, but also organisational, administrative
and management skills.
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Dimitra the main vocational training body
for Greek agriculture emphasises key development areas
as being added value and environmentally sustainable production,
increase in farm size/commercialism and improved planning,
control, analysis, accounting, risk management, marketing
and quality assurance supported by the increased use of
ICT.
The concept of farm management
is rather new to the Greek Educational System and few training
or information materials are available. In the last decade
efforts are made to introduce the concept at the secondary
educational level as well as for vocational training in
agriculture. Agroplan will aim to further expand these
initiatives.
The Italian agricultural sector is extremely diversified
because of the geographical characteristics of the
territory and the cultural differences characterising
each Region and within the 2,5 million farms in Italy
very few are commercially managed. In general, the
agricultural sector in Italy is experiencing a phase
of radical and sudden change fuelled by the need to
face new challenges, namely addressing issues not traditionally
covered by the agricultural sector, such as environmental
protection and landscape management, as well as aiming
to fulfil the expectations of national and international
markets (prices, quality standards etc.).
The number of people working in the agricultural sector
in Italy has reduced from 20% in 1971 to 5% today.
80% are managed as family farms and more than 50% of
farmer heads are more than 60 years in age. Only 5%
of farmers have taken any kind of professional training.
Less than 1% of Italian farms have a direct internet
access or make any use of e-commerce for purchasing
or selling, although those that have benefit from the
organisation of logistics and, to a lesser extent,
in their relationship with final consumers.
In general, however Italian farmers are highly knowledgeable
and self-reliant in their management activities and
tend to have a very good understanding of their weaknesses,
strengths and of the threats they will be facing in
the future, But many still face financial difficulties
because they do not know how to plan production properly,
carry out effective monitoring and control of agricultural
production processes. Recently the Italian Government
has further promoted professional training with the
aim of providing workers with the technical and practical
know-how required to be qualified for insertion in
the labour market, and including re-training, specialist
training and full time training options and decentralised
into regional development plans. The Agroplan project
will aim to support these initiatives.
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Agroplan are developing practical
materials that are aimed at changing attitudes and developing
the skills of advisers and trainers in key areas, including
farm business planning and marketing, farm diversification,
agricultural sustainability, environmental issues and farmers
associations. The project will consider in particular the
use of ICT and e-commerce technologies and the further encouragement
of quality assurance programmes. 
In the UK the new entry level EU scheme will be applied
in 2005 and together with other changes agriculture will
present a very different look in another decade. Much
of the policy appraisal of agriculture has risen up the
political agenda because of animal and human health issues
and key policy issues are aiming to further integrate
the food chain, improve farm performance, contribute
to sustainable rural communities, protect and enhance
the environment and improve the accessibility of services
for rural people. Codes of good agricultural practice
have been available and widely disseminated over a number
of years.
HTSPE
Limited UK
HCL Consultants GREECE
OGEEKA DIMITRA GREECE
PESCARES ITALY
OTLEY COLLEGE UK
BBT BULGARIA
MITSINGAS RTI CYPRUS
AGRICULTURAL CYPRUS
KEOSOE GREECE