State and perspectives of agriculture development in the Western Balkan countries

Abstract

Agriculture is of great importance in developing countries, and in the Western Balkans it has a large share in economic development and employment, but with a tendency to decline. The subject of the paper refers to the review of the current state of agriculture in the Western Balkans, while the goal is to point out the possibilities of improvement and development of both agriculture and other non-agricultural activities in rural areas, with the aim of diversifying activities and reducing dependence on the primary sector. OLS panel regression showed a negative impact of dependence on agriculture, in terms of participation in GDP and employment, on economic development, while a positive impact was established for agricultural production and export of agricultural products. The Kruskall-Wallis' test showed that the Republic of Serbia is still highly dependent on agriculture compared to other countries of Western Balkans, which is why multifunctional agriculture and diversification of activities should be developed in order to reduce the share of agriculture in GDP and employment. On the other hand, the Republic of Serbia is the leader in the region in terms of agricultural production and export, so it is necessary to work on improving production through the introduction of modern technologies and production methods, so that agricultural products become more competitive on the international market, which would encourage export growth and economic development.