Reviving Pre-Socialist Cooperative Traditions: The Case of Water Syndicates in Bulgaria

Abstract

A close look at the agricultural sector within Bulgaria shows an uneven distribution of
natural water resources over time and space, making irrigation necessary to reduce
production risk. The irrigation sector has been drastically affected by the political and
economic changes that followed the collapse of the Socialist system. Bulgarian irrigation
infrastructure was built to serve large production units during socialism and no longer
meets the needs of the new farming structures, which combine small-scale subsistence
producers with medium and large-scale agricultural producers. The infrastructure has
deteriorated and irrigation water use, and corresponding areas under irrigation, have
sharply declined. In the irrigation sector as whole, the result has been chaotic water appropriation
rules and insecure and ineffective property rights (Theesfeld 2004).