Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007

Graph 10.16. What would help your household
to live better?
Nonagricultural
employment
Access to
credit lines
Market
organization
(sale,
Information
access
Business
association
Training,
education,
courses
Other
Don't know
and refused
2.2%
4.6%
16.8%
12.9%
12.5%
40.3%
57.4%
10.4. Changes of main social and
economic indicators of
agricultural households
2002-2007
65.9%
From 2002 - 2007 strategies relating to
agricultural incentives changed several times. The
most important elements of the agrarian reform in
Serbia since 2000 have been as follows: market
liberalization, privatization of food-processing
industry, the beginning of the formation of new
institutional forms at all levels. Land reprivatization,
unlike other countries in transition,
did not have significant consequences on the
agrarian structure considering high share of private
farms in the total agricultural resources even before
transition.
However, many years of overlapping
jurisdiction from republic and federal institutions
has slowed down significant changes in the sector
operations. The majority of jurisdictions relating to
the agricultural sector were not transferred to the
Government of the Republic of Serbia until early
2003. Strategic and program commitments of the
reform governments have been changed (partly) due
to objective changes in the overall macroeconomic
environment. Therefore, there is still lack of clearly
defined development strategy and mechanisms for
implementation. Therefore efficiency, as well as
overall results of the sector, is below the expected
and achievable level. Generally speaking, in past
five years agrarian policy reform in Serbia has
undertaken the following directions (Božić D.,
Bogdanov N. 2006):
• Funds from the agrarian budget have been
increased while their share in the total budget
has remained at almost the same level;
• Implementation mechanisms have been
redirected from income support to investment
incentives;
• A key system change regards the implementation
of state support, in that only registered farmers
are allowed to receive it since 2004;
• Significant diversification of supporting
measures to agriculture and rural areas is
performed.
Changes in the organizational and economic
characteristics of the agricultural households in past
five years indicate the following (Table 5):
1. The number of agricultural farms is decreasing,
followed by their polarization by size.
2. The average size of agricultural land possessed
by farms is reduced to 4.34 hectares (by 6
percent compared to 2002), but the land used per
farm has grown to almost 5 hectares. These
figures indicate relatively dynamic land market
compared to the 2002 situation.
3. The number of farms that own livestock is
reduced, but the average number of head per
farm has grown.
4. The quantity of machinery and equipment has
grown, partly owing to support from the
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water
Management aimed at purchasing agricultural
machinery and partly to a more developed
financial capital market.
5. The share of food expenses of agricultural
households in relation to total expenses has
dropped as well as own production food
consumption, which are measures of the better
standard of living compared to five years ago.
6. The number of farms with income from the sale
of agricultural products is dropping, indicating
household income specialization and their
polarization according to income sources within
the agricultural and off-farm activities.
148 Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007