Indicators of market orientation of family agricultural holdings in Serbia and Kladovo municipality

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of family agricultural holdings (FAH) in Serbia from the aspect of market orientation. The purpose of writing the paper is to analyse the indicators that affect the market orientation of FAH, which are: utilized agricultural area (UAA), economic size of the holding, the structure of the engaged labour force (by gender, age range and by educational level). The main source of data is from the Farm Structure Survey (FSS), and the results for the area of Serbia and the municipality of Kladovo are presented. It is concluded: fragmentation of land holdings; unfavourable economic size of holdings (small in Serbia and very small in Kladovo); in the structure of the engaged labour force on the territory of Serbia, members of the holdings participate with 56.7%, particularly 59.1% in Kladovo; male headed holdings are dominated, while women are most often represented as members of holdings; holdings are mostly elderly because 39.1% of holdings' managers in Serbia are aged 65 and over, specifically 45.9% in Kladovo; 95.3% of holdings' managers in Serbia and 97.2% in Kladovo have entirely practical experience. The analysis included only FAH because in Serbia they make up 99.7% and in Kladovo 99.8% of the total registered farms. The observed indicators were processed by the methods of descriptive statistics.