LAND SOWN WITH CROPS, FRUIT TREES AND GRAPEVINES

Situation 1 June 2005

In the Republic of Croatia the total of 848 620 ha was land sown with crops. The structure of the land sown was described as follows: cereals made 65.7%, oil seeds 14.2%, tobacco 0.6%, sugar beets 3.5%, forage crops 11.3%, flowers as well as aromatic and other plants 0.6%, while potatoes, leguminous and other vegetables made only 4.1%.

It was in 2005 that the Central Bureau of Statistics for the first time collected data on land sown with crops on private family farms. It was done by using the interview method applied to a selected sample. By introducing this, the Bureau abandoned the long-standing method of compiling data on the land sown with crops through estimates done by agricultural estimators on the basis of cadastral data. Due to the mentioned changes, there emerged significant differences in the data on surface areas sown with particular agricultural crops.

1.  LAND SOWN, SITUATION 1 JUNE 2005

hectares

	Total	Business entities and  their parts	Private family farms
Land sown, total	848 620	177 834	670 786
Cereals	557 223	100 499	456 724
Wheat - total^1)	150 101	43 276	106 825
Maize - total^2)	325 115	44 594	280 521
Oil seeds	120 241	43 417	76 824
Soya-beans	47 709	19 690	28 019
Rape seed	20 508	10 939	9 569
Sunflowers	50 323	12 548	37 775
Tobacco	5 146	321	4 825
Sugar beets	29 916	15 162	14 754
Forage crops^3)	96 063	15 165	80 898
Alfalfa	25 933	3 756	22 177
Clover and mixtures	21 052	538	20 514
Flowers, aromatic and other plants^4)	4 954	998	3 956
Potatoes, leguminous and other vegetables^5)	35 077	2 272	32 805

1)    Soft wheat (winter, spring and seed)

2)    Mercantile and seed

3)    Including the autumn and spring sowing and the area with old production

4)    Chamomile, sage, chicory, hop, seeds, planting material and other

5)    Including cultivation on arable land, in gardens, protected areas and kitchen gardens

2.  THE TOTAL NUMBER OF TREES/GRAPEVINES, SITUATION 1 JUNE 2005

'000

	Total	Business entities and their parts	Private family farms
Apples	6 673	2 211	4 462
Plums	4 452	34	4 418
Grapevines	131 695	22 011	109 684

3.  LAND SOWN, BY COUNTIES, SITUATION 1 JUNE 2005

hectares

	Total	Cereals	Oil seeds,  total	Tobacco	Sugar beets	Forage crops	Flowers, aromatic and other plants	Potatoes, leguminous  and other vegetables
Republic of Croatia	848 620	557 223	120 241	5 146	29 916	96 063	4 954	35 077
County of Zagreb	49 070	39 431	1 358	-	1	6 507	96	1 677
County of Krapina-Zagorje	15 547	11 850	-	-	3	2 504	21	1 169
County of Sisak-Moslavina	42 494	32 493	3 372	-	116	5 460	17	1 036
County of Karlovac	21 376	11 740	31	-	-	7 689	15	1 901
County of Varaždin	29 140	22 142	555	-	388	2 027	55	3 973
County of Koprivnica-Križevci	58 935	45 800	1 915	78	563	9 299	257	1 023
County of Bjelovar-Bilogora	71 588	57 632	3 828	117	224	7 924	212	1 651
County of Primorje- Gorski kotar	1 197	107	-	-	-	432	11	647
County of Lika-Senj	9 061	3 845	-	-	-	3 875	24	1 317
County of Virovitica-Podravina	79 661	48 228	15 701	3 471	2 387	4 285	2 900	2 689
County of Požega-Slavonia	37 694	27 241	3 899	1 089	871	3 094	175	1 325
County of Slavonski Brod-Posavina	56 084	37 524	8 563	77	2 500	6 369	33	1 018
County of Zadar	6 042	1 541	-	-	-	2 150	15	2 336
County of Osijek-Baranja	194 462	117 401	45 855	229	11 228	16 974	626	2 149
County of Šibenik-Knin	1 635	552	-	-	-	773	3	307
County of Vukovar-Sirmium	121 753	66 838	33 821	85	11 190	8 136	82	1 601
County of Split-Dalmatia	5 967	2 413	-	-	-	1 523	253	1 778
County of Istria	11 604	4 639	74	-	4	4 626	72	2 189
County of Dubrovnik-Neretva	923	127	-	-	-	47	16	733
County of Međimurje	28 376	20 824	1 220	-	441	1 753	38	4 100
City of Zagreb	6 011	4 855	49	-	-	616	33	458

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY

Source and methods of data collection

At the end of the spring harvest, the Report on Land Sown with Crops, Fruit Trees and Grapevines is used in collection of data on arable land sown with crops, data on total agricultural land by type of cultivation, land under mixed and combined crops, number of fruit trees, grapevines and, concerning business entities and parts thereof, data on the renting of land. These data are collected separately for legal entities and parts thereof and for private family farms. Data concerning business entities are still collected by using the postal method.

For the first time, data for private family farms have been collected by using the interview method applied to a selected sample. The sample for private family farms was selected from the basic group according to the 2003 Agricultural Census and it is entirely random; the only condition was that there were at least three households in a same settlement. The sample was conceived out of 21 county samples, providing that the basic group consisted of all agricultural households less households selected for the sample in the Survey on Livestock on Private Family Farms. The sample size was conditioned by the financial means allocated from the State Budget of the Republic of Croatia and the share of agricultural farms by counties. The sample consisted of 10 992 selected households. In every county the sample was selected on the basis of the analysis of the following 7 land categories: total used agricultural land, surface area of arable land, surface area of kitchen gardens, surface area of meadows, surface area of pastures, surface area of orchards and surface area of vineyards. The response was 95.5%. Due to 4.5% of non-response, expansion factors had to be corrected (by counties) on the basis of data collected in interviewed households. All expanded data were compared to data from previous years, 2003 Agricultural Census data and available administrative sources (the Address Book of Private Family Farms of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management etc.). On the basis of all available data, corrections were done if necessary.

Because the estimation method of land sown, based on cadastral data, has been abandoned, there emerged some differences in data on surface areas of land sown with particular crops, mainly seen as a decrease in the size of surface areas. This happens, in our opinion, because the cadastre is not up-to-date.

Data on agricultural land refer to the situation as on 1 June and present agricultural land used in a reference year, that is, own land and land leased minus land rented.

Coverage and comparability

Reporting units are business entities and parts thereof taken over form the Register of Business Entities, which are defined in sections A Agriculture, hunting and forestry and B Fishing, according to the NKD 2002. (NN, No. 13/03). The coverage is selective and data are collected by using the postal method.

Reporting units are also households engaged in agricultural production, for which interviewers collected data. Private family farms have been selected from the 2003 Agricultural Census data base.

Definitions

Kitchen gardens are areas determined for the cultivation of crops (mainly vegetables) intended for consumption  by members of a household. They are not primarily intended for sale.

Abbreviations

ha                 hectare

'000              thousand

NKD 2002.  National Classification of Activities, 2002 version

NN               Narodne novine, official gazette of the Republic of Croatia

Symbols

-       no occurrence