SummaryThe article examines the main problems encountered during the development of area-based partnerships in rural Bulgaria. These partnerships were created to enhance endogenous development in rural areas and have been rapidly adopted due to the requirement to run the European Union LEADER type program. Purpose of the article is to assess the practice and the problems of implementation of the LEADER approach in Bulgaria for the first membership program period and to offer recommendations to increase the motivation of local communities for the development and implementation of local development strategies. Conclusions and recommendations for improving the practice of implementation of the

On the basis of a literature review, the directions for transition of agriculture from the productive to the postproductive model are presented. A methodological framework has been developed, including the directions of the transition and the indicators on which it can be assessed. On the basis of this implementation, the passage from quantity to production quality, to the sustainability of agriculture, to new business models based on multifunctionality are assessed. It turns out that the changes in Bulgarian agriculture cannot be assessed unambiguously. The transition to sustainability is accompanied by continued mechanization and digitization of technological processes. There is a simultaneous development of both the productive and the post-productive model of agriculture. Together with the increasing interest in organic production, the implementation of environmentally friendly practices and the implementation of ecosystem services, modernization based on computerization and chemisation continues. The results are part of scientific project DN 15/8 2017 Sustainable multifunctional rural areas: reconsidering agricultural models and systems with increased demands and limited resources funded by the Bulgarian research fund. JEL Classification Numbers: O13, Q16, Q56,

Development level of the rural areas in the different countries is usually associated with different forms of interaction and interdependence among producers, cooperative organizations, business and even research institutions. These forms and their various legal framework, as well as various levels of development trends and success have certain effect not only over the incomes generated, but also on the overall progress of the region they are located, including local community, agribusiness and its contribution over the local economy. This paper aims to conceptualize an effective local development model, enabling a more effective organization and interaction of community resources and government support. Against this background a number of representative initiatives of innovation and innovative solutions that have emerged at the regional level will be analyzed. The study corroborates that the determinants of the innovation process in the rural areas are not simply the policy measures undertaken, but rather the sense of responsibility and collaborative action taken on by the different stakeholders. This translates into the development of networks, involving local municipalities, for-profit organizations, as well as non-for profit organizations and cooperatives that explicitly pursue community well-being and regional identification.

Local action group (LAG) is a new form of public-private partnership in rural Bulgaria. It is called to mobilize local communities and make it empathetic with the problems of rural development. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the process of setting up local action groups LAG in Bulgaria and based on the analysis of the problems of their operation, to develop guidelines and recommendations for improving implementation of LEADER approach. The paper includes an assessment of the process of creating LAG and presents the results of the study of problems of their operation in different regions of Bulgaria. The study used questionnaire method, structured interviews, strategies and other documents. The conclusions and proposals are derived based on the evaluation of information for 14 LAG on the territory of 21 municipalities in different regions of Bulgaria

More than 10 years of Bulgarian membership in the European Union has resulted in significant changes not only in the product and organizational structures of the agrarian sector. These changes take place at different speed and form new models of agriculture by country. The purpose of the article is to analyze the regional changes in the product and organizational structures and to assess the characteristics of the emerging agricultural models in the northern and southern planning regions of Bulgaria. The thesis of the article is that, regardless of the unidirection of the changes, the agrarian identity of the regions affects their speed and their characteristics. The methdological approach is based on the assessment of the changes in product and organizational structures and their impact on the development of the regions. Subject of the research is the agrarian sector in the planning regions in our country. Conclusions were made for the consequences of changes in the importance of agriculture for the regional economy, their environmental impacts, income from farming, jobs, changes in the population, etc. The characteristics of agricultural models are described and guidelines and possibilities for their adaptation and development of the regional agricultural production potential were developed.