Plateforme de connaissances sur l'agriculture familiale

Subsistence Farming and Rural Unemployment – the Case of Slovakia

This paper aim is to examine various assumptions referring to the increase of subsistence farming in Slovakia during the transformation period. Based on statistical data from small landholdings and individual, non-registered farms in various regions of the country (districts with high and low unemployment, eastern and northern versus western and southern districts, rural, semi-rural and urban districts), an attempt was made to display possible regional divides when subsistence farming was present. The outcome of this investigation has been that neither the traditionally-perceived east-west or north-south divide, nor the rate of unemployment in respective districts caused an observable difference in the relative occurrence of subsistence farms. Instead, rurality was disclosed as the factor most responsible for the density of subsistence farms. Rural regions have higher unemployment and a higher density of subsistence farms than semi-rural and urban districts. A further finding suggests that in-kind income grew during the past decade quicker than other sorts of income only in old-age pensioners’ households, a trend which stopped in 2000. Visible growth of this kind of income could be observed in the social group "employees" only during the years 1993- 1996. The paper concludes that the deterioration of the social economic situation in Slovakia during the transformation period has not resulted, despite the expectation often shared by the public, in an “en masse” exodus towards farming activities. 

Title of publication: The Role of Agriculture in Central and Eastern European Rural Development: Engine of Change or Social Buffer?
Volume: 25
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Nombre de pages: 22-36
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Auteur: GEJZA BLAAS
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Organisation: Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Central and Eastern Europe
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Année: 2004
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Pays: Slovakia
Couverture géographique: Europe et l'Asie centrale, Union européenne
Type: Article
Texte intégral disponible à l'adresse: http://www.iamo.de/fileadmin/documents/sr_vol25.pdf
Langue: English
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