Nelly Bencheva

Peanut is not listed as one of the major crops in the Bulgarian agricultural sector, but its economic and fi nancial viability is promising, but unknown. We use enterprise budgets, capital budgeting techniques, risk analysis and logistic regression models to examine the fi nancial and economic structure of peanut farms and to evaluate the factors infl uencing short and long-term profi tability. The results show that peanut production is a profi table venture for most peanut farmers in Bulgaria. Long-run analyses show that peanut production may be economically feasible and producers engaged in production for a period of seven years, and at a discount rate of 13%, may generate internal rates of return (IRR) that vary from-20.57 % to 67.39%. About 70 % of the farms studied had IRRs greater than the discount rate. Sensitivity analyses show that profi tability of peanut production was infl uenced by yield and variable costs. There were risks at the village level associated with peanut pr...

Peanut is not listed as one of the major crops in the Bulgarian agricultural sector, but its economic and fi nancial viability is promising, but unknown. We use enterprise budgets, capital budgeting techniques, risk analysis and logistic regression models to examine the fi nancial and economic structure of peanut farms and to evaluate the factors infl uencing short and long-term profi tability. The results show that peanut production is a profi table venture for most peanut farmers in Bulgaria. Long-run analyses show that peanut production may be economically feasible and producers engaged in production for a period of seven years, and at a discount rate of 13%, may generate internal rates of return (IRR) that vary from -20.57% to 67.39%. About 70% of the farms studied had IRRs greater than the discount rate. Sensitivity analyses show that profi tability of peanut production was infl uenced by yield and variable costs. There were risks at the village level associated with peanut pro...

We examined peanut production systems and selected factors affecting the development of commercial peanut enterprises in Bulgaria. A survey of 220 individual farms and farm cooperatives engaged in the cultivation of peanuts was conducted during 2000 and 2002. Poor farm structure, low level of technology, and nonconformity to farm decision making impede the financial and economic development of Bulgarian peanut production and farm growth, thus limiting farm enterprises emergence into competitive economic units financially operative in a freemarket economy. The underlying cost structure, couple with small farms, averaging 0.8 ha in size, prevent farmers from capturing economies of scale, limit farm profitability and hence farm modernization. The lack of owned farm machinery, equipment and storage facilities renders the restructuring and specialization extremely difficult. However, peanut production is still a viable farm enterprise for Bulgarian farmers.