STATE AND NEEDS OF AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND INNOVATION SYSTEM IN BULGARIA

The goal of this paper is to access the state, specify trends, and identify intervention needs of Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) in Bulgaria, and assist policy formation for the next programing period. Modern scientific approaches of SWOT, Strategic Orientation, Gap Analysis, Comparative Institutional Analysis, etc. are used to identify actors and relations, trends in development, assess Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, formulate an adequate strategy, and specify overall and public intervention needs of AKIS in the country. Bulgarian AKIS demonstrates low resource endowment and efficiency, domination of outdated public institutions and undeveloped private sector, insufficient sharing of knowledge and innovations, slow and uneven application of modern technologies, varieties, production and management methods, digitalization, etc. in different types of farms, subsectors of agriculture and regions of the country. The list of specified AKIS needs is provided to the government for taking a political decision about appropriate measures for public intervention. This study demonstrates that preparation of country’s RDP is (has to be) based on the comprehensive scientific approach while the research community proves that it can contribute to solving an important academic and practical problem