Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007

Graph 10.12. Structure of farms by employment of 15+ members, by quintiles of consumption
(members active in non-agricultural activities / members active in agriculture)
49
72
48
64
55 49 44
26
Not active in
agriculture
51
28
52
36
45 51 56
74
Active in agriculture
Below Above The
poorest
2 3 4 The
richest
Total Poverty line 2007 Quintiles of consumption
Census 2002 indicates that the majority of
labour recruited to work in agriculture in Serbia
(75 percent) fits into a category of labour producing
for their own needs, while only 20 percent of
workers in agriculture produce for the market
(Table 4). The proportion of women in the
agricultural labour force producing for the market is
extremely low (26.1 percent) which is the case in
other transition countries as well (IFAD 2002). The
remaining 5 percent of workers in agriculture are
manual workers (day labourers).
From the prospective of diversification of
income and activities of members of agricultural
households, one can conclude that differences in
their standard of living depends on other nonagricultural
activities i.e. their opportunity to get
off-farm employment. This implies that human
capital and labour force performances have the
greatest impact on agricultural households'
vulnerability5F6 . Besides the high impact of wages on
agricultural households standard of living the data
shows that “part time” farms, especially those with
a younger and more qualified labour force are richer
compared to the others. This conclusion supports
the general conclusion that “part-time" farms are
those having higher standards, better educational
and age structure of their members compared with
other types of households in rural areas and
agricultural households6F7 , and are considered to be
leaders in progress, technical, technological and
other innovations in rural areas.
Table 10.3. Activities of the labour force by household type
Total Agricultural farms Non-agricultural farms
Active members 15+ 100.0 100.0 100.0
Active 54.1 59.6 51.3
Employed (non-agricultural activities) 37.0 27.5 41.8
Farmers and members helping in
agricultural activities
10.0 26.4 1.6
Unemployed 7.1 5.7 7.9
Inactive 45.9 40.5 48.7
Pensioners 20.8 17.4 22.6
Housewife 4.7 5.1 4.4
Pupils and students 9.8 8.0 10.8
Incapable of work 2.1 2.0 2.1
Other inactive 8.5 8.0 8.8
Agriculture
145