In the village of Pržno near Budva, there are 20 registered agricultural farms with 380 thousand square meters of agricultural land, of which 80 thousand are in arable land and gardens. They keep 99 pregnant sheep, 25 cows and pregnant heifers and nine heads of working livestock, i.e. horses, oxen or donkeys. Pržno has 170 inhabitants, of which 104 live in agricultural households.
These are data from the 1960 agricultural census, which show that the current elite tourist resorts in Montenegro lived off agriculture 65 years ago.
That year, Montenegro had 65 agricultural farms, with 338 household members living on them. The total population of Montenegro was 471, meaning that 72 percent of the total population were from families that made a living from agriculture.
They were without electricity, plowing with the help of horses and oxen
According to the data from that census, out of 65 farms, 13 had "electric lighting", or some kind of electricity supply. The remaining 52 farms, or 80 percent, were without electricity.
Of the total 48 thousand hectares of arable land, 1.419 hectares were cultivated with cooperative tractors (the only ones that existed at the time), which is only 2,9 percent of the total arable land area. The remaining land was cultivated with the help of draft cattle, the number of which was 52 thousand, as well as with 12.057 plows for plowing.
In such conditions, without electricity and almost no mechanization, agricultural holdings used 346 thousand hectares of agricultural land. They kept 77 thousand cows or pregnant heifers, 384 thousand breeding sheep, as well as 6.095 breeding sows. The total area under stables for livestock made of solid wood was 1,77 million square meters.
Now, when every village has electricity, telephones, internet... - Montenegro has 26,7 thousand agricultural farms that use a total of 126 thousand hectares of agricultural land, only a third of what was used in 1960. There are now 8,5 thousand hectares of arable land under arable land and gardens, which is 17 percent of such areas from 1960 when plowing was done with the help of oxen or horses. Last year, 9.373 tractors were registered in agricultural farms.
Now, the agricultural census has slightly different categories for livestock, because not only breeding animals are counted, but also the total number of cattle, sheep, pigs, goats... so that the total difference between the number of livestock cannot be determined by simply comparing the figures.
In the agricultural census from last year, there were 68,6 thousand cattle, while 65 years ago there were 77 thousand cows and pregnant heifers alone. Now a total of 167 thousand sheep have been counted, while in 1960 there were 384 thousand breeding sheep. At that time there were also six thousand breeding sows, while now the number of pigs is stated to be 52 thousand.
Among these figures from 65 years ago, there is no data on the number of goats, poultry and beehives, and last year 28 thousand goats, 1,3 million poultry and 113 thousand beehives were registered.
Reduced arable land
The average agricultural holding in 1960 had 53 thousand square meters of agricultural land, of which 7,3 thousand were under arable land and gardens. Now the average household has 48 thousand square meters of agricultural land and 3,2 thousand square meters under arable land and gardens.
This current average of 48 thousand square meters of agricultural land per farm is mostly influenced by farms in the north, which have significant areas under pastures and meadows. For example, 305 farms from Šavnik use 6.107 hectares of land, which is an average of 20 hectares, or 200 thousand square meters of land. However, only 56 hectares or 1.840 square meters per farm are under arable land.
In the municipality of Zeta, 909 registered farms now use 2.275 hectares of total land, or 25 square meters per household. In this municipality, there are 1.036 hectares under arable land, which is 1,14 hectares per household, or 11.400 square meters.
In comparing the two censuses, it is important to note that there were different methodologies for defining what an agricultural holding was. Thus, in 1960, an agricultural holding was considered a household with at least 1.000 square meters of arable agricultural land on which it produces vegetables, flowers, aromatic herbs, tobacco for sale... According to the criteria from last year, a holding is considered a household with at least 5.000 square meters of land for its own needs, or for selling products, or three thousand square meters of arable land, one thousand square meters for growing vegetables, flowers, vineyards, orchards... or 100 square meters of greenhouses...
65 years ago, a household was considered a farm if it had at least one cow, five sheep, or three pigs. Now, to register a farm, you need one cow, or two sheep and goats, one sow, four piglets, 15 poultry, or 10 beehives.
The 1960 agricultural census data does not include information on the age of the head of the household, or household manager. The average age of the head of the household, or household manager, is now 59 years old. This is two years older than the 2010 data.
Of the total number of household heads, 86 percent are now men and 14 percent are women.
Farming in the EU requires ten times more land and twice as many livestock
In the data from last year's census, the criteria for what is considered an agricultural holding in our country and what is considered an agricultural holding according to the standards applied in the European Union were compared.
If these stricter EU criteria were applied in Montenegro, the number of farms would be reduced from the current 26 thousand to 18 thousand. Montenegro will have to apply these criteria when it joins the EU, which means that the number of those who would be eligible for future subsidies could be reduced. In other words, households would have to work on their consolidation if they want to maintain the status of agricultural farms.
In the EU, a farm must have at least 50 square meters of utilized agricultural land, while in our country, at least five thousand are required.
The minimum area of arable land in Montenegro is three thousand square meters, and in the EU it is 20 thousand square meters.
For the production of potatoes, vegetables and strawberries, a farm in the EU must have at least 5.000 square meters of land, while in Montenegro it is now one thousand square meters. For the cultivation of fruit and olives, the minimum is one thousand square meters in Montenegro, while in the EU it is three thousand.
In livestock farming, the number of livestock required for a farm in the EU is almost twice as high as the current norms in Montenegro.
There were the most sheep in Golubovci, cows in Ozrinići
The Montenegrin village with the largest number of breeding sheep in 1960 was Golubovci in the then Podgorica district. They had 1.814 heads.
In the entire municipality of Zeta, according to last year's census, there were 621 sheep (not just breeding sheep, but in total).
65 years ago, there were more than a thousand breeding sheep in two other villages in Zeta - 1.174 in Mataguži and 1.064 in Ljajkovići.
The Mojkovac village of Slatina had fewer breeding sheep than Golubovci - 1.813. In the entire Mojkovac municipality last year, there were a total of 4.095 sheep.
65 years ago, Mojkovac's Gostilovina had 1.751 breeding sheep, Lepenac had close to a thousand with 989 breeding sheep. In other words, there were more breeding sheep in those three villages alone than there were sheep in the entire Mojkovac municipality last year.
The village with the most cows and pregnant heifers in 1960 was Ozrinići in Nikšić with 439 heads, followed by the settlement of Plav in the Plav district with 269, Slatina in Mojkovac with 261, Crljenica in Pljevlja with 251...
Bonus video:
