Može li Hrvatska imati konkurentnu obiteljsku poljoprivredu? Prilog istraživanju agrarne strukture
Can Croatia Have Competitive Family Farming? A Contribution to the Research of Agrarian Structure

Summary/Abstract: Supported by data taken from the agricultural censuses of the years 1960 and 2003, the authors analyse in this paper the fundamental structural changes in the agricultural homesteads of Croatia, especially changes in the number and size of the farm land and work force. A special part of the analysis refers to the special / regional distribution of agricultural homesteads according to land size. The results indicate that in the last forty years unfavourable processes have accumulated in Croatian family farming, such as a continuing decrease of the number of farms and the farms' average size, a substantial subdivision of farm land, great loss of the once cultivated agricultural land and growth of uncultivated farm land. Furthermore, there has been a considerable change of socio-professional structure of the population living in these agricultural households. Farm land has become more of a supplemental economy of the population living on it and farmers are becoming a marginal group. In order to create a vital, economically sustainable and competitive family farming sector, it is essential to improve the agrarian structure, which implies an increase of the average size of the agricultural homestead. In terms of development, there are two possible approaches within the process of restructuring family farming: the first is to increase the number of homesteads striving towards an economically effective size of the farm land. Such commercial farms could influence the overall growth of Croatian agriculture most. The second approach is the survival of the small family farm with mixed financial resources.

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