Strukturne promene u poljoprivredi Republike Srbije u funkciji unapređenja konkurentnosti

Agriculture has lately been exposed to significant changes caused by numerous factors. Years-long exploitation of agricultural potential for the purposes of contributing to economic growth has resulted in changes within the cross-sectoral level of the economy. Furthermore, the changes have also taken place within the structure of agricultural production itself. Nowadays, agriculture represents a sector of a significant importance in the economy of Serbia and it is crucial for improving the standard of living, alleviating poverty, providing markets for the industry and service sector expansion, as well as through the contribution to economic development. In order to meet the challenges that agriculture faces, improvement of its competitiveness appears as one of the priorities of the economic and agricultural policy. Therefore, a special attention should be paid to identifying and analysing key indicators of agricultural competitiveness that simultaneously represent the most important structural changes in Serbian agriculture. The aim of the scientific research is to comprehensively examine the structural changes in Serbian agriculture and the factors that determine the level of its competitiveness in order to point out the perspectives of its development in terms of improving competitiveness. Also, it is particularly important to examine and compare the level of agricultural competitiveness of Serbia and the EU countries by designing a composite Agricultural Competitiveness Index (ACI) as well as to study the influence that agricultural competitiveness indicators have on the national competitiveness in the EU and Serbia. The analysis of the structural changes in Serbian agriculture has shown that these changes are less intense in agriculture than in other sectors of the economy, as well as that these structural changes have contributed to the reduction of the relative importance of agriculture in the Serbian economy. The most significant structural changes in Serbian agriculture are also identified as key indicators of its competitiveness. Designed composite ACI has shown that investments in agriculture have a decisive impact on the overall competitiveness in agriculture. Also, the composite ACI has shown that Serbia lags far behind the EU countries regarding agricultural competitiveness. The analysis of the obtained research results has determined certain areas which are of special importance for the agricultural competitiveness in Serbia. Based on that, a set of recommendations for improving the agricultural competitiveness in Serbia has been drafted