Sociology and Space, No. 46, 1974.
Original scientific paper
PART-TIME FARMS IN THE AGRICULTURE OF BOSNIA/HERZEGOVINA
Joko Sparavalo
Abstract
Part-time farms have developed in Bosnia/Herzegovina — as in fact in Yugoslavia
as a whole — as the consequence of a special manner of deagrarization, —
i. e. the gradual transformation of the agricultural population into a non-agricultural
one. In contrast to the case when the farmer takes employment outside the
farm and at the same time leaves tfe farm, in this case persons employed outside
the farm and thus do not become totally separated from agriculture. This
transformation of the agricultural population into a non-agricultural one produces
a transitional strata of mixed rural population.
In Yugoslavia part-time farms generally come into being in two manners.
The first, basic and most frequent manner is when one or several members of a
household take employment outside the farm in a non-agricultural, usually industrial,
activity. In this case the economic activity of the farm does not cease
and the farm continues as a productive unit. The second manner in which part-
time farms come into being is when a rural household — in order to be closer to its place of work — sells its smallholding and moves nearer to an urban centre
or the place of employment. The family will buy new land there and set up a new
faim. In either case, work on the farm is carried out by active and helping members
and, more rarely, by external labour.
As the most important causes for the development of part-time farms in
Bosnia/Herzegovina the author lists the following:
— small size of farms and considerable surpluses of manpower which cause a
low income from the farm which is inadequate for the maintennance of the whole
family. This forces rural households to ensure a supplementary income by finding
employment for its surplus manpower outside the farm;
— due to the low productivity of labour and low income in non-agricultural
activities, which employ chiefly unskilled or semi-skilled labour from rural areas,
that labour cannot afford to give up farming completely as a source of income;
— ever since the last war urban development in Yugoslavia has been lagging
behind the country's economic development. Therefore persons with employment
outside the farm find it impossible not only to give up farming as a source of income
but also to leave the village as the place of permanent residence.
Besides these basic causes there are many other factors which promote the
development of part-time farms as, first of all, the development of communications
and the decentralization of industry. A shorter working week, mechanization of
farm work, specialization of production, and better organization of the distribution
of agricultural produce also contribute to the rapid spread of part-time farms.
Part-time farms in Bosnia/Herzegovina occur most frequently in areas marked
by a rapid economic advance since the war. The largest proportion of part-
time farms in relation to the total number of private smallholdings can be found
in communes with a larger proportion of active inhabitans, a higher per capita income,
and a lower percentage of agricultural population.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
118955
URI
Publication date:
10.12.1974.
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