Republic Croatia’s number of citizens employed in agricultural industry is by far higher than that of EU members, but their efficiency is incomparably smaller because of low number of agriculturally cultivated land.

Renting the land

Besides Croatia’s job market, World Bank is displeased with large agricultural sector which, compared to other European countries, is too inefficient, Jutarnju List reports. According to their report, the number of people working in agriculture is among the largest in Europe because it employs 14,2 percent of available workforce.

Report says that renting the land would enable agricultural development in large and consolidated areas, which in turn, would bring profit to both the country as well as land owners who do not wish to partake in agricultural activities.

Agriculture contributes only 7,4 percent of Croatia’s national income, which considering its number of employees, is insignificant. Among the EU members the percentage of population employed in agriculture is higher only in Poland (15,8%) and Rumania   (30,6%).

In spite of its high number of employees, Croatia’s agriculture is exceptionally inefficient compared to that of EU members who have a highly developed agricultural sector but who employ four times less employees. For example, great Briatin employs 1,4 percent of population in agriculture, but they use far more agricultural land than Croatia.

It pays off to live from welfare in Croatia

Chaos in Croatian agriculture can be seen from the fact that added value per agricultural worker in our country is 10.929 American dollars, while worker in the EU makes 29.275 dollars. World bank also says that reasons for poor results come from the fact that agricultural land is parceled and because great land masses are left unused.

To be more precise, the average agricultural land in Croatia is 1.9 hectares, while only one percent of family farms are larger than than 20 hectares. Fracturing of farm land was caused by inheritance law which allows for land to be divided even when it becomes too small to be profitable.

Croatia has a great need for experts, technicians and qualified workers (in services and industry), while at the same time it has too many extra salesmen, officers and agricultural workers.

It is also very problematic that out of 2,7 million hectares of available agricultural land, third is owned by the state, while only 1,8 million hectares are private.

Renting would bring profit to everyone.

However even those surfaces are not fully used because 41 percent of land is not used in agriculture, that is, it remains a dead capital. Because of all that, Croatia is not adapted for globalized international economy so the World Bank suggests we take a notice of Slovak Republic which uses more than 90 percent of the farming land through various renting agreements.

Renting the land would enable agricultural development in large and consolidated areas, which in turn, would bring profit to both the country as well as land owners who do not wish to partake in agricultural activities.