The Workforce and its Costs – Constraints of Agricultural Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Радна снага и њени трошкови – ограничење развоја пољопривреде у Босни и Херцеговини

Abstract

The subject of the research was workforce, its availability and price, and its importance for agriculture development in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). The aim was to determine whether the workforce remains to be a comparative advantage or has become a limitation on agricultural development in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The introduction to the selected subject of research was done on the basis of a literature review, followed by an authors’ own survey based on a randomly selected sample of farms. The results confirmed that it is increasingly difficult to find workers for seasonal works in agriculture in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that farms rely primarily on the workforce within families, relatives and friends. The price of labour in agriculture is rising, but it is still lower than in other sectors and abroad, which is the reason why workers are leaving agriculture. Bosnia and Herzegovina compared to three years ago, it is harder for Bosnia and Herzegovina farms to find additional workforce and they pay it more. The future agricultural policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina should seriously count on family farms and their modernization in terms of creating conditions for workforce reduction and substitution.