Abstract
The foundations of Bulgarian higher agricultural education date back to 1921. Until then, agricultural university graduates were trained in France, Germany, Italy and other European countries. In 1945, based on the Regents’ Council Decree No 180 of August 4th, published in the State Gazette on August 20th, the Ordinance setting up a state university located in Plovdiv was enacted. Nowadays, the Agricultural University (AU) is the successor of that first university situated outside the capital Sofia. The history and traditions of this higher educational establishment have invariably followed the social and cultural development of the country, which has gone through difficult and complicated political and economic times. Even today, the Agricultural University in Plovdiv is the only specialized state university in Bulgaria in the area of agricultural and related sciences of national, European, and international high prestige. The purpose of the present review is to present the traditions and challenges in agricultural education in Bulgaria. The University draws strength from the rich tradition but looks to the future and global problems to provide accurate decisions to the challenges of the twenty-first century in agricultural education, science, and safe food production for a better quality of life.
Keywords: agriculture, education, traditions, research, innovations