Agroeconomia Croatica, Vol. 14 No. 1, 2024.
Review article
Farmers’ Challenges during the Periods of Natural Disasters on the Example of the Republic of Croatia—A Case Study
Ana Posarić
; Magistrica sociologije, Hrvatska
Petra Palić
; Odjel za sociologiju, Hrvatsko katoličko sveučilište, Ilica 242, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
In addition to fishing and forestry, agricultural production belongs to the primary sector of economy, indicating its significance in a country’s financial system. This very fact speaks of its importance in country’s financial management. However, agricultural production has recently faced numerous challenges—for instance, the environmental, economic, social, political, and technological ones. Climate change exerts unfavorable weather effects that ultimately destroy the agricultural products and pose an obstacle to the development of agriculture and farmers both on a global and on the local levels. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to identify the most common challenges faced by the Croatian farmers during the periods of natural disasters. The specified objectives aim to examine whether the Croatian farmers receive assistance from local, regional, or state authorities in the restoration of agricultural production in the event of a natural disaster and whether they are still motivated to continue working in agricultural production despite the increasingly frequent natural disasters. A qualitative research was conducted while applying a semi-structured interview method involving six purposefully selected participants engaged in agriculture in the Republic of Croatia. The research results demonstrate that the participants have encountered bad weather, especially drought, frost, and hail, which cause great economic losses. Also, the participants point out that they have not received an adequate assistance from local, regional, or state authorities in the restoration of agricultural production if a natural disaster had occured, but they also point out that they have no intention of giving up agricultural production due to the increasingly frequent weather disasters. The limitation of this research is a small number of respondents, who were selected intentionally, and therefore the research results cannot be generalized as representative of the farmers’ population in Croatia. However, their importance lies in a fact that they provide qualitative descriptions of the challenges faced by the Croatian farmers in the periods of natural disasters and open up new questions for a further, in-depth research.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
319684
URI
Publication date:
20.7.2024.
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