AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT IN THE DISTRICT OF NIKŠIĆ, MONTENEGRO (1945−1955) SUMMARY Between the two world wars, majority of the population in the District of Nikšić lived on agriculture, notably livestock breeding. During the World War II`, it was the livestock that suffered the major losses. The first post-war decade of development in the District of Nikšić had the character of general development of this branch at the level of Yugoslavia. The pre-war poverty and underdeveloped agriculture was emphasized even further with wartime destructions in the World War II. After the war, preference was given to industrialization of the country, thus slowing down significantly the recovery and further development of rural parts and agriculture. Industrialization, migration of population from rural to urban parts, failed state experiment with founding of farmers co-operatives, poor technical equipment and absence of qualified professionals in agriculture were the main reasons for poor agriculture development in the District of Nikšić in the period 1945−1955, despite the efforts of the state to improve the situation in agriculture by, among others, trying to modernize the process of farming of plant and animal species through establishing of renowned agricultural institutions, such as the Livestock Breeding

Between the two world wars, majority of the population in the District of Nikšić lived on agriculture, notably livestock breeding. During the World War II`, it was the livestock that suffered the major losses. The first post-war decade of development in the District of Nikšić had the character of general development of this branch at the level of Yugoslavia. The pre-war poverty and underdeveloped agriculture was emphasized even further with wartime destructions in the World War II. After the war, preference was given to industrialization of the country, thus slowing down significantly the recovery and further development of rural parts and agriculture. Industrialization, migration of population from rural to urban parts, failed state experiment with founding of farmers co-operatives, poor technical equipment and absence of qualified professionals in agriculture were the main reasons for poor agriculture development in the District of Nikšić in the period 1945−1955, despite the efforts of the state to improve the situation in agriculture by, among others, trying to modernize the process of farming of plant and animal species through establishing of renowned agricultural institutions, such as the Livestock Breeding Institute, the State Farm Kapino Polje, veterinary surgeries, etc. According to the Population Census 1948, the percentage of rural population in the District of Nikšić was 73.7%, and from that year onwards, the population started engaging in other economic activities, industrial, above all.


INTRODUCTION
The District of Nikšić is the Region located in the West part of Montenegro that at the conclusion of World War II became a constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The situation in agriculture in the District of Nikšić in the first post-war decade was not significantly different from the situation at the level of Montenegro or Yugoslavia (Anonymous, 1947;Micunovic, 1955;Laltovic, 1955). In the period of intensive industrialization of the country, which began already with the First Five-Year Economic Development Plan adopted in 1947, rural areas and farmers were pushed into the background. Finances were, for the most part, invested in industry, while rural parts were supposed to contribute to development of industry and cities mainly through supply of food products, and they were also the main source of manpower that numerous construction sites needed, which initiated the migration of the population from rural to urban parts.

ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK Livestock breeding
Before the war, livestock breeding was not only the most important agricultural sector in the District of Nikšić, but also the most important economic branch. The war decimated the livestock (Anonymous, 1947), and what was left could not be called quality livestock. Livestock recovery was slow so in 1952, in the District of Nikšić, there were 2,977 horses, 20,231 cattle, 66,452 sheep, 3,249 pigs, and in 1953 3,070 horses, 19,765 cattle, 67,649 sheep and 2,940 pigs (Anonymous, 1947). The Livestock Breeding Institute in Nikšić, founded in 1946, had the difficult task of revitalizing livestock breeding in those first post-war years (Ljumovic, 1955). On 9 December 1950, the Government of the People's Republic of Montenegro adopted the Decree on founding of the Institute for Scientific and Research Work and Development of Agricultural Production in Titograd (Official Gazette, N o . 1/1951 22/1952.). In its Decision on 19 October 1952, the Government  founded the Institute for Livestock Breeding in Ivangrad (nowadays Berane), which included a cattle farming station in Nikšić and a horse farming station in Žabljak (Marovic, 1998).
Organization of veterinary services began immediately after liberation. The Presidency of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) adopted the Law on Civil Mobilization of Veterinarians on 24 May 1945, with the objective of alleviation of the deficit of veterinary staff in a number of federal units. The number of veterinarians in Montenegro after the World War II was 5 (Tomasevic, 1955a). The number of veterinarians in July 1945 was eight. The Government of the People's Republic of Montenegro adopted the Decree on Veterinary Stations (31 January 1953), laying down that people's committees of districts and cities may found veterinary stations (Official Gazette N o 5/1953). With this Decree, the people's committees of municipalities, too, could found veterinary stations for their own area. For the area of one or more municipalities, the people's committees of districts could establish veterinary surgeries or field offices under veterinary stations (Official Gazette N o 5/1953).
In the District of Nikšić, livestock was affected most by the following diseases: fasciolosis, echinococcosis, tapeworms (State Archives of Montenegro, 1952). Issues that the veterinary service faced were numerous and were reflected, first and foremost, in the lack of instruments, vaccines against anthrax, means of transport. The most obvious deficiency was the absence of qualified staff with university degree, and in particular the support staff with secondary education "without which the tasks set before veterinary services cannot be performed in entirety" (State Archives of Montenegro, 1952). There were also many other issues in the work of the veterinary services: "there was no pit where dead livestock would be thrown in" (meaning a regulated area for disposing of dead livestock -author's note), the slaughterhouse did not satisfy the hygiene conditions and there were numerous cases of livestock slaughter beyond slaughterhouses and people who treated diseased animals without any qualifications. Leaders of district people's committees with their frequent interventions, such as "…the political moment does not allow for implementation of such measures", or "…it is bureaucratic", caused particular problems to veterinarians, and where livestock losses occurred as a result of untimely implementation of measures necessary, only veterinarians were blamed for it (State Archives of Montenegro, 1952). Good results were achieved in control of rabies among dogs, while number of livestock dying of blackleg and anthrax was reduced by 75%. Two loans allocated for building of a veterinary surgery in Nikšić the District People's Committee of Nikšić used for other purposes. 2 Furthermore, instructions, rulebooks and decrees were to be prepared, to govern the exact scope of work of all stakeholders (State Archives of Montenegro, 1952). The Social Plan of the city for 1954 provided allocation of 10,000,000 dinars for construction works for the veterinary surgery, 3 which began its work on 23 November 1954. 4 Along with the rise in population in Nikšić, the issue of lack of a spatial and properly arranged market place arose (Tomasevic, 1955b). That is why in 1952, a modern market place of 3,500 m2 was built. By then, the Tito's Square (today The Liberty Square -author's note) performed the function of a market place and later on a smaller street (Ivanović, 1973). 5 The year after (1953) the Market Place Administration was founded, with independent finances, task of which was to take care of construction, maintenance and cleaning of the market place to collect market and other fees laid down by the People's Committee of the City Municipality of Nikšić, to control the quality of the goods presented and keep records on price trends (State Archives of Montenegro, 1953).
The Decree on Prohibition of Goat Breeding in the People's Republic of Montenegro, of 25 January 1948, affected most the livestock breeding in rocky hilly and mountainous regions, covering, among others also, the District of Nikšić. The process of elimination of goats in the District of Nikšić was faced with many problems as it was impossible to fully replace the planned number of goats for other livestock species (sheep and cattle). 6 Extremely small reserves of feed were also a problem, so the issue of nutrition of the replacement livestock occurred. Also, care was to be taken of other issues such as: use of common pastures and watering points for certain villages and some households in villages where goats were entirely eliminated were dissatisfied as there were villages where keeping several goats per household member was allowed, and they all shared the same pastureland and watering points (St. Arch of Montenegro, 1953). The livestock structure at the level of district and city showed existence and use of primitive livestock breeds. Absence of feed was more than obvious. Forage crops accounted for only 5.5% of arable land while meadows and pastureland which practically were the only source of feed were neglected, so the quality of hay was, for the most part, poor. This was particularly pronounced because plans for flooding of the south-western part of the Nikšićko Field were widely known. The care practices, accommodation and protection of livestock was very poor. On the territory of the City, there were 1,500 cattle, mainly of the domestic breed (buša), while the number of purebred breeds that produced up to 2,000 litres of milk were few, compared to the number of animals of buša breed that produced 400 to 500 litres. The number of horses was only 90, primitive breeds, sheep around 1,500, pigs around 650 (approximately one animal per 1 ha of arable land) and around 100 bee hives. 7 In order to improve the situation in livestock farming, it was necessary to develop the feed resources and increase the share of purebred animals in all livestock farming sectors.
In June 1952, the enterprise Zadrugar was founded, main task of which was to assist the cooperatives of the District of Nikšić to supply the goods necessary: foodstuffs, seed, machinery and construction material. 8 In 1953, the food enterprises increased turnover by only 4% compared to 1052, and the difference in price rose by the same percentage. At the same time, the trade costs rose by 42% and wage fund by 40%. In 1953, the enterprise Zadrugar increased its turnover by 78% compared to 1952. The difference in prices rose from 5% to 7.2%, trade costs by 98%, and wage fund (with AF) by 372%. 9 The prices of agricultural products in 1953 and 1954, set by the District People's Committee (SNO) and City People's Committee (GNO) of Nikšić were as follows: 10 According to the structure of those times, agricultural production in the area of the City People's Committee had the crop-fruit farming character. Such structure did not meet the needs of the city and its surroundings, so it needed to be changed by increasing the area under fodder crops and orchards, at the expense of arable land under maize and stubble cereals. Farming maize and stubble cereals was to be done in the scope needed for maintaining the most effective crop rotation.

Crop farming
Agricultural areas on the GNO territory could be divided, in terms of soil quality, into two groups. The first, covering most of the area, was poor soil on gravel substratum where arable areas could not be used for crop farming without previous fertilization. These areas were held by farmers mainly as pastureland, that would after five to six years be ploughed for sowing wheat and rye, and after two years, these would again be used as pastureland. Absence of knowledge about fertilizers and lack of manure resulted in very small area (gardens) fertilized by manure, mainly for growing potato, cabbage, onion and sporadically maize. Having in mind the stated, Pavicevic (1955), proposed, for the period one decade of the development, the increase of use of mineral fertilizers for 20 times. In frequent cases, these crops were for years grown at the same site. Such land is mainly found on the territory of Rubeže, Dragova Luka, Kličevo and a part of Straševina. The other group of land plots was of a somewhat better category (the territory of Glibavci, Mokre Njive, a part of Straševina and Studenac), so the yield without use of fertilizers was better than in the first group. 13 Agricultural area of GNO covered 5,783 ha, of which 724 ha were arable land (55.629 ha for Montenegro, that is 10.36% of the total area of Montenegro, Micunovic, 1955), 479 ha meadows, 805 ha under pastures, 34 ha orchards and the rest under forest and infertile land. Arable land structure sowed in 1953 was as follows: under maize 202 ha, wheat 118 ha, rye 26 ha, barley 50 ha, oat 2 ha, potato 48 ha, alfalfa 26 ha and stock beet 15 ha. Average yield per 1 ha was as follows: maize 6 metric cents, wheat 6, rye 8.5, barley 6.4, oat 5. Such small share of fodder plants was the result, mainly, of either partial or complete lack of knowledge about the crops (alfalfa, vetch, cow peas, etc.) on one hand, and on the other, keeping small number of animals, low productivity of livestock as a result of inadequate nutrition, so the farmer did not feel the need to produce better feed. Along with refocusing to producing as much of fodder plants as possible, loans were needed for households to build silage pits and concrete dung yards. Increase of area under alfalfa and vetch should have taken place at the expense of maize and wheat and at the same time measures to enrich the soil with nitrogen had to be implemented. Since the small number of livestock resulted in small production of manure, use of fertilizers was to be increased, properly used, in order to avoid adverse effect. According to the plans, the farmers' cooperative Trebjesa was to provide fertilizers and seed to cooperatives at somewhat lower prices. According to the ten-year agriculture development plan for the District of Nikšić, the area under fodder plants was to be increased by 110 in the fields region, which would mean by 73 ha in the city region. There were very few farmers who were able to sow Lucerne on larger areas, as they needed 13,000 dinars only for seed for 1 ha. Its price was 300 dinars. Particular attention was to be paid to meadows and pastureland and meadows in particular were in poor conditiongrown over with various weeds, moss and acid plants. In order to refocus and increase yield in the upper parts of the GNO, i.e. the territory of Mokre Njive and Glibavci, irrigation of areas should have been done, using pumps. 14 In the years to come, already small agricultural areas in the Nikšićko Field were reduced further. For the needs of the future Hydro Power Plant Perućica, the south-west part of the field, best suitable for cultivation was flooded. Flooding of that part of the field produced three reservoirs (Krupacarea 5.19 km 2 . Slanoarea 8.89 km 2 and Vrtacarea 13.4 km 2 ), waters of which served as reservoir for the HPP Perućica. Works on construction of the reservoir began in 1958. 15 For the needs of the Steelworks in Nikšić, a reservoir of 1 km 2 was made in Liverovići (Župa Nikšićka) in 1955, although the original purpose of the lake was different. 16 Thus, the arable land area in Liverovići was significantly reduced. Apart from construction of reservoirs, arable land area was reduced by building of large industrial plants, such as the Steelworks, the Brewery Trebjesa, etc.
By climatic and soil conditions, as well as due to the increase in demand for fruit and processed fruit products caused by increase in urban population, fruit growing should have been a developed agriculture branch. Instead, it had a garden character (Mijuskovic and Ulicevic, 1955). For the most part, it served to meet the needs of households and when small quantities of fruit and processed fruit products were presented at the market, it was either in high-yield years or at the expense of consumption of a household. The number of trees grew every year, but the yield per tree was in decline. Low yield and poor health condition of trees were the result of absence of application of even the most essential protection measures in fruit growing. Earthing up around fruit trees was rarely practiced, as well as pruning, fertilization and protection against plant diseases and pests. Also, no attention was paid to the seed coming to the orchard. Old trees were not renewed, which was made even more difficult by absence of a sufficient number of good trees, particularly plums, walnuts and pears, as well as their high price. Areas under fruit, owned by the farmers' cooperative Trebjesa were small and scattered. The trees were particularly affected by plum moth and bark beetles, and spraying of trees was spreading slowly, as a result of high price of plant protection products and tools, but also as a result of lack of knowledge and information among farmers (Mijuskovic, 1955). Almost every year summer campaigns of fruit tree spraying were organized, but, as a result of insufficient number of sprayers and large areas affected by moth, and also by poor response by farmers, these campaigns had more of a demonstrative character. 18 In order to renew and expand the fruit growing, various measures were planned that the City Committee was supposed to implement: establishing of a fund for covering the difference between the purchase price of trees and their 17 State Archives of Montenegro. Archive Department Nikšić, f. District People's Committee of Nikšić, box LXXXI, Situation in agriculture on the territory of the City People's Committee of Nikšić and measures for improvement, 18. March 1954, unsystematized documents. 18 Ibid. price accessible to farmers, supply of at least two or three engine-driven sprayers that would be the ownership of the Plant Protection Station; training of farmers through practical lectures, seminars, courses and finally, as the main solution for improving the situation in agriculture, the need for significantly larger investments into this area was emphasised. 19 The Council for Agriculture and Forestry was founded in September 1955 and by the end of the year, it had three sessions, where a number of conclusions were discussed and adopted. 20 At the Council's 21 proposal, the Committee decided that the Council is to manage the agriculture development fund for which the Committee allocated the sum of 7,000,000 dinars. In cooperation with the District People's Committee, livestock exhibition was organized with participation of 610 farmers and 1,141 animals. A study on irrigation of the Nikšićko Field was produced and the irrigation projects for Gornje Field and Kočansko Field were developed, as well as preparation works for founding of a Water Community that would take over further execution of works. Allowance for fertilizers and fruit trees was granted from the agricultural development fund, and 5,000 seedlings were sold through cooperatives. With a view to fruit protection, the Order on mandatory mechanical cleaning of fruit was adopted, and winter spraying of fruit trees were organized together with the phyto-station, so the total of 37,000 fruit trees were sprayed on the territory of the Municipality.
As support to agriculture, the following were granted under the investment fund: 1,950,000 dinars to the farmers' cooperative Trebjesa for construction of a reservoir, silage pit and poultry house, for trailer for milk and purchase of breeding animals; 670,000 dinars to the farmers' cooperative Vidrovan for silage pit, trailer for milk and breeding animals; 50,000 dinars for farmers cooperatives Kapino Polje and Ozrinići, each, for milk trailers; 150,000 dinars for bee keeping tools; 200,000 dinars as allowance for bee hives; 500,000 dinars for dairy 19  equipment; 200,000 dinars for specialization in dairy; 600,000 dinars as allowance for seeds; 300,000 dinars for fruit tree seedlings; 120,000 dinars for fertilizers; 50,000 dinars as awards for renowned farmers; 100,000 for courses in agriculture; 150,000 dinars for bee-keeping development; 150,000 dinars for livestock exhibition; 200,000 dinars to the Farm Studenca for silage pit; 750,000 dinars for phyto-station, allowance for fruit tree spraying and supply of sprayers; and 505,000 dinars for supply of breeding animals. 22

CONCLUSIONS
Analysis of the post-war status of agriculture in the District of Nikšić shows that it had much in common with other Yugoslav rural parts and agriculture in general, but it also had some of its specific traits. Like in the rest of Yugoslavia, the agricultural development in the District of Nikšić lagged behind the industrial development. The general trend of migration of rural population into towns was obvious also in Nikšić. It is true that in the surroundings of Nikšić there were examples proving that rural population was retained for a longer period of time, and in some it even grew: for example, in 14 villages of the valley of Gračanica (Župa Nikšićka) the population in 1948 was 4,455 and in 1991 it was 4,819. 23 Apart from favourable climatic, pedological, hydrological conditions that enabled the population in villages in the valley of Gračanica to work in agriculture, the increase in population was also the result of their employment in the Bauxite Mines and the Steelworks Nikšić, as well as of good transport infrastructure that enabled good and fast connection with the city. Villages of the District of Nikšić, too were affected by measures of the people's government, although confiscation and nationalization were done with less personal and family drama, since most of the agricultural land belonged to the Church, so such measures did not have the impact they had for example, in Vojvodina. Compared to the rest of Yugoslavia, the District of Nikšić was poor in agricultural areas which were also of uneven quality. Furthermore, there were no big landowners in the District; for the most part, the farms were small.