Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007

Graph 10.4 How do you assess the current status
of your household?
hand, the share of agricultural households in the
richest households was reduced by almost 6 percent
(Graph 10.6.).
Very bad
Bad
10.0%
30.5%
Graph 10.6. Share of agricultural households
Average
49.5%
Total
32.9%
30.1%
Good
Very good
0.7%
9.0%
Type of
settlement
Urban
Other
10.0%
10.7%
64.7%
59.3%
Graph 10.5. How do you see material position of
your household in next five years?
Deteriorated
Same
Improved
I do not know
17.6%
16.8%
33.4%
32.2%
10.3. Serbian agricultural households
and poverty
According to LSMS 2007, agricultural
households account for 30.1 percent of the total
number of Serbian households, which is reduction
by 2.8 percent compared to 2002. This relatively
small reduction in the number of agricultural
households is caused by a natural withering away of
households without heirs and indicates that the
labour market and land market are not sufficiently
active. In such circumstances, productivity growth
by land consolidation and by reduction of hidden
unemployment through diversification of activities
and income of members of the agricultural
households is significantly reduced.
The share of agricultural households living
below the poverty line (36.7 percent) was slightly
reduced in 2007, while the share of the most
vulnerable households (37.33 percent) remained
unchanged compared to the 2002 level. On the other
Poverty line
2007
Quintiles of consumption
Below
Above
The
poorest
2
3
4
The
richest
38.5%
36.7%
32.2%
29.7%
37.3%
37.3%
35.8%
34.8%
36.6%
31.5%
29.2%
28.2%
26.0%
20.0%
2002 2007
The main causes of poverty of agricultural
households may be classified into two groups of
factors:
1. unfavourable performances of the agrarian
structure - unfavourable ownership structure,
underdeveloped capital market and poor human
resources are main causes of the agricultural
households vulnerability;
2. insufficient diversification of income and
activities of members of agricultural households.
10.3.1. Human resources of the
agricultural households
Human resources of agricultural households,
by their performances, are significantly less
140 Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007