Determinants of rural development support use in Macedonia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify the internal and external factors that form the farmers’ intentions in relation to the use of the rural development support and explain their behaviour, in order to design an appropriate assistance plan to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the rural development policy. The analysis is based on the theory of planned behaviour and multivariate statistics applied on data gathered in a survey of about 900 farmers that took place in November-December 2014 in Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The findings confirm that farmers’ intentions are influenced by the past behaviour (application), their attitudes towards the use of rural development support and the possibilities for co-financing. The social norms are mostly important in Serbia, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina. Other socioeconomic factors, such as education, market orientation, farm size and the share of household’s income from agriculture, have different impact among the countries.