The role of agriculture and the village in the development of coastal Croatia

Thanks to the very well developed tertiary sector, the GNP of coastal Croatia participates in Croatia’s overall GNP more highly than does its population (35.5% and 30.6%). Agricultural production, on the other hand, is much more poorly represented. The value of agricultural production rests on its complementary characteristics with a high proportion of Mediterranean cultures. The agrarian policy of Croatia should thus be of a regional character, and adapt its production structure to the natural conditions that favour it. In recent years the decades-long decrease of the rural population of coastal Croatia was greatly mitigated, and in some areas even stopped. In the villages, however, non-agricultural households, i.e. households that have no active farmers, prevail. Thus the strategy for the development of the village as a social, economic and cultural environment in which agriculture occupies only one segment must start from the totality of village life as it is, not only from conditions for fostering agricultural production. This kind of development will then activate the existing potentials for agricultural development, too. In rural areas that suffered war destruction »projects« for activating agricultural production should bear in mind long-term economic efficiency, and should, among other things, promote the creation of »economically feasable« farms. Answers should already now be sought to prevent the possible tendency towards the spreading of uncultivated areas