Writing a new song

At the end of 1994, after five years of reform effort, many of the outlines of Bulgarian agriculture remained unchanged from November 1989, when Communist Party leader Todor Zhivkov was ousted. As of May 1994, only 14 percent of agricultural land had been distributed with titles to new private owners (Ministry of Agriculture 1994a), and the majority of agricultural land continued to be farmed in large collective farms, which posted declining yields and output. Agricultural recovery is of particular importance to the success of Bulgaria’s political economic reform, however, due to the central role agriculture plays in the Bulgarian economy.