Sociology and Space, No. 61-62, 1978.
Original scientific paper
Farmers About Land Consolidation
Ruža First
Abstract
This microsociological research on
the attitude of farmers towards
land consolidation is the part of
a wider, more complex project
about the drainage regulation of
the river Sava. The research took
place in the area of Črnec Polje,
and plot 10. The sample included
13 villages from the communities
of Čazma, Dugo Selo, Ivanić Grad
and Sisak, and the total of 102
rural households — 51 full-time and
51 part-time farm households. The
interviewees were heads of the
sample households.
The following specific goals were
to be established through that
research: socio-demographic and
productional characteristics of the
farm households, the level of
knowledge of the farmers about
the planned carrying out of land
consolidation, their general
attitudes towards land
consolidation, their expectations of
land redistribution and
hydromelioration, as well as their
perception about the social action
directed towards the improvement
of land arrangement.
It was established that the
interviewed farmers have generally
a positive attitude towards land
consolidation, as to one of the
necessary steps in the wider
hydroameliorational project.
However, this positive attitude,
existing at the global level,
moderates, when their own
households are in question. In this
case, the farmers condition their
positive determination for land
consolidation as well as their
readiness for cooperation with the
local authorities on the »fulfillment
of the promise« by the land consolidation organizer, on the
covering of the costs by the society,
on the higher level of information
regarding the procedure and
conditions of land consolidation,
as well as on the socially
guaranteed usefulness of this
action. This means, that for
farmers the general social benefit
of land redistribution is obvious,
however, they are not inclined to
accept it a priori, and to submit
themselves to the new working and
earning conditions. For the respondents, it is hard,
from the perspective of the
familiar productional procedure on
their own farms, to see the
advantages of the new, for them
essentially different, productional
process. The benefits of
productional reorientation, which
is necessarily to take place upon
the completed land redistribution
and hydromelioration, are at the
present moment still not fully
comprehensible and understandable
for the farmers. Therefore, they
declare themselves for firmer
cooperation between the social
representatives and the participants
in rationalization of land holding.
They, themselves, wish to
participate more actively and
equally, not only in the carrying
out of land consolidation, but also
in the planning of the total
hydroameliorational project and in
the realization of its particular
phases.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
119109
URI
Publication date:
12.12.1978.
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