REGIONAL ASPECTS OF FAMILY FARMS AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY EQUIPMENT

As a candidate for a full-scale membership in European Union, Republic of Croatia harmonized its national statistics with EU statistic standards. According to National Classification of Areal Units, Republic of Croatia is divided oil three statistical regions: North-West Croatia, Middle and East Croatia and Adriatic Croatia. There are significant differences between regions, which can mostly be seen in economic development. Compared to EU GDP, GDP of North-West Croatia is 53.58%, for East Croatia 31.54% and for Adriatic Croatia 39.66%. East Croatia has 49.9% of family, farms (FF) in Croatia, using 56.7% of agricultural land. North-West Croatia has 27.5% of FF using 28.8% land. The average size of FF in East Croatia is 2.2 hectares, in North-West Croatia is 2.0 ha and in Adriatic Croatia is 1.2 ha. Actuators of changes in agricultural production are mechanization, chemisation and breeding. Tractors are still the most important machines due to their polyvalent purpose, therefore it became usual to measure the mechanization level by the ratio between land and number of tractors. Number and structure of machines is influenced by economic development of the region, agricultural and production structure, configuration of terrain etc. In East Croatia, 38.9 ha of land come on every one axis tractor, 5.9 ha on every two axis tractor and 138.6 ha on one combine. North-West Croatia has significantly smaller ratios: 9.7 ha on one axis tractor, 3.3 ha on two axis tractor and 117.7 ha on combine. In Adriatic Croatia the numbers are: 2.4 ha oil one axis tractor, 4.5 ha on two axis tractor and 261.3 ha on combine.