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This report was compiled by
Riccardo Biancalani FAO Chief Technical Advisor in Last update January 2006 |
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Note 1: This report is
largely based on the results of the FAO/Italy project on inventory of land
resources in BiH (GCP/BIH/002/ITA). Other
sources are the FAO Strategy for agricultural development in BiH, the BiH Medium Term
Development Strategy-PRSP, the UN Agencies Common Country Study and the Mine
Action Centre reports, as well as the UNHCR and the UNFPA websites. |
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1. Country overview 1.1 Geography
and administrative units 1.3 Climate 1. > top |
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1.1 Geography and administrative units
Map 1.1.1: Outline Map Map 1.1.2: Administrative Map (UNHCR/SFOR) [PDF]
Note: Brčko District is not represented 1.1 > 1. The pre-war population of BiH
was just over 4,377,000. There has
been no Census since 1991 and current estimates use adjusted 1991 data.
Between 258,000 and 269,800 people died or have gone missing. Up to 60
percent of the remaining 1991 population were forced to flee their homes,
with 1,282,000 internally displaced and 1.2 million seeking refuge abroad.
Ten years after the end of the war, more than 200,000 persons are today still
displaced in all BiH. Including war losses, migration and post-war returns,
present population is estimated at 4.19 million (UNFPA). The impact of war is also apparent in
available birth, mortality and fertility data. Age-group composition has also
changed. In the FBiH a 3 percent rise in the over
65 group is matched by a 3 percent reduction in the employable age group
(20-64). BiH now
faces a complex future with a large proportion of elderly people and a
smaller than usual working population, in an economy coping with post-war and
economic transition. This adds an important economic dimension to the human
rights focus of the returns issue. Donor support has helped many people to
return, but UNHCR estimates that some 700,000 have made new lives and will not come back. Many are younger, able
people who BiH now needs. The lack of up-to-date
demographic data creates further difficulties to any form of economic
planning. Distribution by region, age, gender, and other socio-economic
categories are estimated using 1991 data. Given the unreliability of most
official statistics, a new BiH-wide census is an
essential first step to better planning and programming. Agriculture has played an important role in BiH. Before the conflict some forty percent of the population was full or part time employed in the agricultural sector. The war between 1992 and 1995 had a devastating effect on agriculture and food production and at the end of the conflict nearly eighty percent of the population depended on imported food. Since then, several bilateral and multilateral assistance programs have provided for essential farm inputs. Chart 1.2.1: Population
Age Structure per Entity Table 1.2.1: Population
Statistics (from UNFPA, 2005) 1.2 > 1. BiH is situated in the northern temperate belt, at
equal distance from the Equator and the North Pole, therefore the climate is
not dominated by only one type of weather. There are neither dry seasons nor
harsh and long winters. In terms of climate it can be divided into three
divergent regions with more or less sharp boundaries or moderate transition
zones, as follows: Northern region with temperate
continental climate and average temperature in January from -0,2oC
to 2,0oC, in July 20oC to 22oC, and average
precipitation of about 800mm. Hilly-mountains region with
variations of continental, high-mountainous and alpine climate, average temperatures
in January -0,3oC to -7,4o C, in July 10,2oC
to 21,2oC, and precipitation of about 1000mm Southern region with
characteristics of Mediterranean climate, average temperatures in January
being 2,3oC, in July 22,5oC to 25,7oC, and precipitation
of about 2000mm. The
varying climatic conditions in BiH offer wide
possibilities to the agricultural production, both in terms of crop choice
and cultivation of land farming, fruit-growing, vine-growing,
vegetable-growing and forage crops and in terms of livestock production. Map 1.3.1: Total Annual Rainfall 1.3 > 1. |
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2. Land resources 2.1 Physiography 2.2 Soils 2.4 Wetlands,
mangroves and inland valley bottoms 2.5 2.6 Natural
hazards 2.7 Land
cover 2.8 Land
use 2.9 Land use
change 2.10 Land
Productivity 211 Environmental Impact
of land uses 2. > top |
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2.1 Physiography
From a morphological point of view, BiH can be divided as follows: ·
Flatland or lowland area (up to
300 meters above sea level), ·
Hilly area (300-500 meters
above sea level), ·
Hilly-Mountainous area (500-700
meters above sea level), ·
Mountainous area (above 700 meters
above sea level), · Mediterranean-Mountainous area (700-500 meters above sea level) ·
Mediterranean area (below 500
meters above sea level). The BiH territory is mainly hilly mountainous region. Until now, little has been done to improve water and soil conditions in the upland territory while many things have been done which degrade and destroy the soil. By excessive forest cutting, arable land of grass lands and uncontrolled cultivation of sloped terrains the status of land is further deteriorating not only in this area but also even in the valley low-lands, and low altitude regions with good quality soil. The large sums invested into the protection of flat areas (river training, embankments, outfall drains, pumping stations) shall remain ineffective if soil and water conservation measures, both of agricultural engineering and technical nature, will not be undertaken in the hilly-mountainous upland. Such measures would contribute to revitalizing the mountainous area and better protecting the flat lowland areas. Map 2.1.1: Major Landform Table 2.1.1:
Landform distribution 2.1 > 2. Flat or low-lands zone
Flat or low-lands zone is found in the northern part of BiH and represents the most valuable land resource. There, the degree of development of primary and processing food production is much higher than in the hilly-mountainous areas. The most
common types of soil are: Cambisols, Albeluvisols, Luvisols, Fluvisols and Gleysols.
Hilly zone The
hilly zone is more heterogenous in terms of soil.
Considerable part of this zone is sloped above 13% and the processes of
erosion are very marked. The erosion processes are further enhanced by
excessive and inappropriate way of soil farming, lack of water and soil
conservation measures and preference
being given to row crops (corn and potato) on such terrains. The most
common types of soil are: Cambisols, Luvisols, Vertisols and Regosols. Mountain zone The
erosion processes are present here too, although these lands are mostly
covered by forests and grasslands. As for sowing crops, rye, barley, oats and
potato dominate. The most
common types of soil are: Cambisols, Leptosols, Regosol and Acrisols. Mediterranean zone In view
of the warmer climatic conditions this area has a possibility of growing a wide
array of crops and of developing intensive farming, so that a part from land
farming crops, the vegetable crops of early vegetables are also being
cultivated for the market. Fruit-growing and vine-growing are also developed
here, so that this region is also called the region of southern crops. The most common types of soil are: Cambisols, Regosol, Fluvisols, Luvisols and Histosols. Map 2.2.1: Lithology Map 2.2.2: Dominant Soils Table 2.2.1: Soil area distribution Table 2.2.2: Lithology area distribution
From the agro-ecological point of view, BiH has been divided into three provinces. The term
“province” here refers to a part of territory with homogeneous climatologic
conditions. The province is divided into districts which represent smaller
areas that are characterized by one or more climatologic stations. The three provinces are: I – North of BiH,
Mostly Flat area, Continental climate (7 stations) II – Central
part of BiH, Mountainous area, Mountainous climate
(11 stations) III – South of BiH,
Mediterranean area, Mediterranean climate (2 stations) By adding the soil characteristics to this climatologic
framework, crop-specific land suitability can be evaluated based on the
Agro-Ecological Zoning principles (see maps). The suitability legend is as follows:S1 Very suitable > 80% of Maximum Attainable Yield (MAY)S2 Suitable 60-80% of MAYS3 Moderately suitable 40-60% of MAYS4 Marginally suitable 20-40% of MAYN Not suitable < 20% of MAY
Map 2.3.1: Land suitability for early potato Map 2.3.2: Land suitability for winter wheat Map 2.3.3: Climatologic provinces 2.3
> 2. 2.4 Wetlands,
mangroves and inland valley bottoms Located near the estuary of the Neretva river, the site, comprising swamps, lakes, wet
meadows, and riverine forest, provides favorable conditions for many wetland species,
particularly of birds and fish, several of which are described as endangered.
Human activities in the area include fishing and hunting; pressures from
drainage, agricultural intensification, urbanization, and growing tourism are
seen to pose potential threats. 2.4
> 2. Information currently not available. 2.5
> 2. The most
common natural hazard is given by the flooding that usually happens every
two-three years in the areas crossed by the main rivers in the central and
northern parts of the Country. Those events create considerable damages to
some of the most important agricultural areas, having a heavy negative impact
of the economy of the affected regions and the Country at large. 2.6
> 2. The FAO Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) provides a basis for the definition of attributes of land cover classes interpretable from satellite images. The LCCS is based on the principle that each land cover class can be defined by a set of independent diagnostic attributes called classifiers and provides criteria for their application.
Taking into account the situation of LC/LU in BiH , 11 classes with 20 subclasses have been identified and mapped. Thirteen subclasses are pure, while seven are mixed (class Z, table 2.7.1). Table 2.7.1: Land cover/Land use distribution Map 2.7.1: Land cover/Land use The following table shows the areas used for
growing some basic agricultural crops (fruits and wine grapes are excluded). Areas
used for agricultural production, expressed in 1,000 hectares (2004)
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