Available Agricultural Area by Utilization Categories and Ownership Structure of Holdings in the Republic of Serbia

The subject of research in this paper is the analysis and presentation of data on agricultural holdings, the structure of available and utilized area. The data and calculated indicators represent a comprehensive overview of the structural characteristics of national agriculture, but they are also an internationally comparable database, based on key features of agriculture. The main goal of this paper is to determine and explain more comprehensively and in detail by using appropriate methods, and based on available data, the condition of utilized agricultural area (hereinafter: UAA) and its quantitative and qualitative characteristics by utilization categories and manner of its use; types of agricultural holdings and statistical regions and lower statistical units of data grouping. Implementation of such a defined basic research goal indicates necessity of more detailed and continuous study of the causes that led to the reduction of available agricultural area and especially its better and more important production categories of utilization and measures and activities to be taken to eliminate or reduce the causes of inadequate management of agricultural area in the coming period. The importance of this research arises from the fact that the results on utilized agricultural area can be used to adopt appropriate measures and undertake certain activities in land and overall agricultural and rural policy related to sustainable utilization, arrangement and protection of agricultural land and more balanced integrated development of rural areas, as well as to find better solutions in the field of utilization, ownership sector and conditions of agricultural area management.


Introduction
Starting from the fact that the data on the structure of the agricultural holdings play a key role in the design, implementation and monitoring the agricultural policy of the European Union (EU), The Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (hereinafter: the Office) planned, organized and conducted the "Agricultural farms structure survey (hereinafter: the Survey) in 2018" 1 . The survey is a nationally significant, organizationally and programmatically very comprehensive activity of the Office in the field of agriculture. The obtained data will serve for the creation of the national agrarian policy, and for providing the basis for the functioning of the system of agricultural statistics. Besides the agricultural census, the Survey is a key research that collects internationally comparable data on the funds and structure of agricultural holdings and is vital for socio-economic analysis and planning for further development in the field of agriculture.
The collected data refer to the land fund and utilization categories of agricultural area, irrigation, land cultivation and maintenance, agricultural mechanization, labor force and other activities of the holding that generate income, market orientation of agricultural production and other data on the holding. An important segment of the analysis of the collected data is the analysis of available agricultural land by categories of utilization and the ownership structure of holdings in the Republic of Serbia, in 2018. The results of such an analysis are intended for the wider scientific and professional public, with the desire to expand agro-economic and statistical analysis of the utilization, arrangement and protection of agricultural land in Serbia-especially by municipalities and areas. The presented results can be significant indicators by which the state and local government will be able to define the problems of agricultural activity more adequately and accordingly plan and make appropriate decisions and take appropriate measures for development, both at the local and state level [1].

Subject, Goal, Method and Significance of the Research
The collected data are the basis for updating the Statistical Register of Agricultural Holdings, which accuracy determines the quality of all statistical surveys that collect data on annual agricultural production, compile economic accounts 1 The survey was conducted on a sample that included 121,070 agricultural holdings. It was funded from the budget of the Republic of Serbia and from the pre-accession funds of the European Union, within the IPA 2016 project (Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, 2016 in agriculture and typology of agricultural holdings [2]. In addition, the obtained results are useful to all other users of agricultural statistics data, i.e. agricultural faculties, institutes and the professional public. The subject of research in this paper is the analysis and presentation of data on agricultural holdings, the structure of available and utilized area. The obtained data and calculated indicators represent: 1) overview of structural characteristics of national agriculture; 2) internationally comparable data, based on key features of agriculture; and 3) necessary statistical indicators needed to define improvement policy and agriculture development.
Main goal of this research is to determine and explain more comprehensively and in detail, and based on available databases, professional literature and legislation, using appropriate methods, the condition of utilized agricultural area (hereinafter: UAA) and its quantitative and qualitative characteristics-in total and by types of agricultural holdings (hereinafter: AHs)-family agricultural holdings (FAHs) and agricultural holdings of legal entities and entrepreneurs (AHLEEs), by statistical regions and lower statistical units of data grouping (districts and municipalities). The justification of such a defined goals stems from the knowledge that the current tendencies and the current situation in the management of agricultural area in general, and especially arable land and areas under orchards and vineyards [3], as production-significant utilization categories of agricultural area, are considered sporadically, without critical consideration of responsibility of their owners and/or users.
Implementation of such a defined basic research goal indicates necessity of more detailed and continuous study of the causes that led to the reduction of available agricultural land and especially its better and more important production categories of utilization [4]. UAA is a part of available land (AL), and this paper presents the state of AL of agricultural holdings in terms of utilization categories of agricultural holdings: agricultural (utilized UAA and unutilized NUAA), woodland and other land.
The importance of this analysis stems from the possibility to point out to the scientific and professional public, competent state institutions, owners and/or users of agricultural area, the need to utilize, arrange and protect agricultural area in Serbia in accordance with the principle of sustainability, which reads: "Generation of current users is obliged to use the agricultural area taken over from their ancestors and to leave it, if not in an increased area and in an improved condition, then at least in the taken over area and in the current condition, to the next generation of users for their sustainable development!" [5].
The significance of this research stems from the fact that the results of the analysis of utilized agricultural area can be used to adopt appropriate measures and undertake certain activities in land and overall agricultural and rural policy [6] related to sustainable use, arrangement and protection of agricultural area and more even integrated development of rural areas [7], as well as to find better solutions in the field of utilization, ownership sector and conditions of agricultural land management.

Structure of Agricultural Holdings
The starting point and backbone of all the observed parameters is precisely the structure of agricultural holdings AHs in Serbia. The results show that there were a total of 564,542 AHs in Serbia in 2018, of which 562,895 were family agricultural holdings (FAHs), only 1375 agricultural holdings of legal entities (AHLEs) and 272 agricultural holdings of entrepreneurs (AHEs). It can be concluded that the total number of agricultural holdings is dominated by FAHs (99.71%) (see Table 1 and Graph 1).
AHLEEs are minor in number (only 0.24% and 0.05%), but this group has a significant share in UAA and a large average area of property, so it can be concluded that they are significant production and economic entities in Serbian agriculture. However, at the same time, their participation in the NUAA is relatively large.
Regionally, the largest number of FAHs is in the region of Šumadija and Western Serbia (42.97%). This region has the largest number of agricultural holdings of entrepreneurs AHEs (41.2%), while the largest number of AHLEs is in the Region of Vojvodina (56.0%) (see Table 2 and Graph 2).

Available Land per Utilisation Categories Area
The total available land AL is the area of-utilized agricultural, unutilized agri-  There are also significant regional differences in the representation of woodland by districts [9]. Areas covered by woodland comprise 18.77% of the total AL in the Republic of Serbia. At the level of the defined areas, the share of areas covered by woodland in the total AL ranges from 0.07% (North Banat District) to 39.58% (Zlatibor District). However, in relation to the above-mentioned average indicators for Serbia, regional differences in the structure of AL by utilisation categories point to the following statements:

Ownership Structure of UAA and NUAA According to the Legal Status of Holdings
A significant aspect of the analysis of AL by utilisation categories is also the analysis of the relationship between UAA and NUAA by the legal status of holdings [10]. The ownership structure of AHs presented in this part of the paper contains the results of the analysis for two basic forms of holding organization (FAHs and AHLEEs) in Serbia and by regions (see Table 5 and Table 6). The majority of AL belongs to FAHs (73.58%), and 26.42% to AHLEEs. However, the share of FAHs in utilized area is 83.90%, and AHLEEs only 16.10%. The share of FAHs in NUAA is 35.80%, and AHLEEs even 64.20%. FAHs also has a dominant share in the category of woodland area (72.57%), and AHLEEs owns only 27.43% of woodland.
In the structure of the total AL of all AHs, UAA dominates (67.12%), but NUAA (5.60%) is also relatively significantly represented. The total area of NUAA is 289,953 ha. Utilized agricultural area of the total available FAHs land is 76.53%, and unutilized is 2.72%. However, the utilized area of AHLEEs is only 40.91%, and the unutilized area is 13.61% of the available land of this group of holdings.
It can be concluded that: 1) The majority of available land belongs to FAHs (73.58%), and 26.42% to AHLEEs; 2) The share of FAHs in UAA is 83.90%, and AHLEEs is only 16.10%; 3) The share of FAHs in NUAA is 35.80%, and AHLEEs even 64.20%; 4) FAHs also has a dominant share in the category of woodland area (72.57%), and only 27.43% is woodland area of AHLEEs.
If we take into account the size of AHLEEs property and their large share in the total AL, the following can be concluded: 1) The average size of AH property in Serbia is only 6.22 ha/AH UAA. The regional analysis of this indicator points out that only holdings in the Region of Vojvodina are with an above-average area of property (12.71 ha/AH or 2.04 times higher)-which is the result of the concentration of the largest number by area of significantly larger AHLEEs. In contrast, holdings properties in all three other regions are lower than the national average: 4.89 ha/AH in the Belgrade region, 4.28 ha/AH in the Šumadija and Western Serbia Region and 4.40 ha/AH in the Southern and Eastern Serbia Region.
2) Legal entities and entrepreneurs comprise only 0.29% of the total number of AHs, but they have 26.42% of the total AHs at their disposal; their share in UAA is 16.10%, and in NUAA 64.20%.
3) AHLEEs are relatively few (1647), but have a significant average size of property of 364.2 ha of utilised and even 479.74 ha of NUAA and 779.87 ha of woodland.  AHLEEs have at their disposal even 186,138 ha or 64.20% of the total NUAA in Serbia, which indicates the need for a detailed analysis of the management of agricultural land owned and utilised by this group of entities [11].

Analysis of the Ownership Structure According to the Legal Status of Holdings and the Size of Property
The results show that there are significant differences between the three ownership subgroups of all holdings, and they are reflected in the large disproportion of their representation in the total number of holdings and the total area of the UAA. From this point of view, all AHs can be classified into three relatively homogeneous groups of holdings by size of the property: small ("less than 5 ha"), medium ("5 -20 ha") and large ("more than 20 ha"). The analysis of the ownership structure according to the share of the defined three collective groups of AHs indicates certain characteristics, as follows: • AHs with smaller property is a group in which the dominant part is concentrated, even 71.74% of the total number of AH in Serbia, and they utilise only 23.24% of the total UAA; • AHs with medium size of property and comprise 24.29% of the total number of AHs, and utilise 35.14% of the total UAA; • AHs with larger property comprise 3.96% of the total number of holdings, and utilise 41.62% of the total UAA.

Regional Analysis of the Ownership Structure of FAHs
Regional analysis of the ownership structure of FAHs indicates significant differences in the ownership structure in four statistical regions in Serbia, which are reflected in the following statements (Table 7 and Graph 5): Belgrade region is the least represented in the number of holdings (5.32%) and in the UAA of all FAHs in Serbia (only 4.08%); The region of Vojvodina is in third place in terms of representation in number of FAHs (22.42%), but it is the most represented in the total utilized agricultural area FAHs (40.07%)-which makes it the most important agricultural region in Serbia in terms of production.

Regional Analysis of AHLEEs Ownership Structure
In the AHLEEs group, there are only 1647 holdings or 0.29% of the total of    AHLEEs by number represent a small group of holdings (only 1,647 households or 0.29% of the total number of AHs), but have a significantly higher share in the total UAA (16.10%) and are the dominant category by number of holdings and UAA in two groups of holdings with larger properties (over 20 ha and over 100 ha). In the group of holdings with smaller properties, AHLEEs comprise 0.12% of the total number of holdings in this group, and their share in UAA is only 0.11%. In the group of holdings with medium-sized property, AHLEEs comprise 0.22%, and their share in UAA in this group is only 0.26%. In the group of holdings with larger property, AHLEEs comprise 3.58%, and their share in UAA is as high as 38.41%. However, in the category of properties larger than 100 ha there is 29.57% of the total number of AHLEEs and they utilize 96.76% of the land of this group of holdings.
AHLEEs are relatively small (1647), but have a significant average size of property, an average of 364 ha of utilized property and even 479 ha of NUAA; 779 ha of woodland. AHLEEs have at their disposal even 186,138 ha or 64.20% of the total NUAA in Serbia, which indicates the need for a detailed analysis of agricultural land management in this group of entities (Table 10).

Conclusions
The aim of this paper represents a realistic view of economic strength and type of agricultural production on holdings in Serbia, in order to obtain a quality, analytical and comparable basis for analysis of structural characteristics and economic parameters of AHs and conceptualization of agricultural policy measures, but also for comparative analysis with AHs in EU countries and neighboring countries [12], as well as a base for scientists in further scientific research on the structural characteristics and economic performance of agricultural holdings in Serbia. Systematization of data and analysis of the obtained results led to a number of important conclusions about this segment of agriculture in the Republic of Serbia. Some of the basic conclusions can be singled out in a brief review of the overall results obtained. According to the obtained results in the Republic of Serbia in 2018, there are 564,542 agricultural holdings, 562,895 family agricultural holdings, 1375 agricultural holdings of legal entities and 272 agricultural holdings of entrepreneurs. It can be concluded that the total number of holdings is dominated by family holdings (99.71%). The largest part of the total number of FAHs is in the region of Šumadija and Western Serbia (about 43%), and the smallest is in the region of Vojvodina (5.32%). AHLEEs are minor in number (only 0.29%), but this group has a significant share in the UAA and a large average area of property, so it can be concluded that they are important production and economic entities in Serbian agriculture.
The area of available land in the Republic of Serbia in 2018 is 5,178,692 ha, of which the largest part is in the Region of Vojvodina (38.29%) and in the Region of Šumadija and Western Serbia (32.83%), and the smallest in the Belgrade region, only 5.09%. Agricultural land comprises 72.72% of the total available land, and 18.77% is woodland (972,283 ha). UAA comprises 3,475,894 ha of the total agricultural land, and 289,953 ha is NUAA (5.6%).
It can be concluded that Serbian agriculture is characterized by a dominant number of FAHs in relation to the AHLEEs. The average size of property is small (6.22 ha/AH; 5.23 ha/FAH and 364.2 ha/AHLEE- Table 6). The FAHs category is dominated by FAHs with a property of less than 5 ha, and in the AHLEEs category the most represented are entities with a property of more than 20 ha. This ownership group uses the largest part of the land in all observed regions.
There is an obvious contrast between the smallest and the largest ownership group of holdings and their representation in the total number of agricultural holdings AHs and in the total area UAA.