Structural Changes in Agriculture arising from the Vocational Orientation of Rural Youth

The article discusses various changes in the agrarian structure which might result from the fact that young people tend to leave the farm and move to town. The author distinguishes three groups of households: those without young members living on the farm; those which plan to have their children educated; and those which intend to keep their children on the farm. For his study the author relies on the results of a large-scale enquiry carried out throughout Yugoslavia which have shown that the number of households to be reproduced in a demographic respect is smaller in the fertile flat regions than in the poorer highland areas. Thus in only 21 per cent of the households in flat areas will young heirs take over the farm while in the highland areas the proportion exceeds 49 per cent. This suggests the conclusion that the more developed a region the stronger the deagrarization trend. The author believes that the migration of young people from rural districts will continue at an intense rate resulting in major changes in the structure of the country’s private agriculture