Page 154 - Mocarelli, Luca, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2020. Maize to the People! Cultivation, Consumption and Trade in the North-Eastern Mediterranean (Sixteenth-Nineteenth Century). Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 154
maize to the people!
Graph 10. Maize production in Yugoslavia in the interwar period
Source: Tomasevich 1955, 476.
the most important producers and exporters of maize in Europe. On aver-
age, maize exports represented 12.35% of all the exports due to the agrari-
an character of the Yugoslav state before World War II. Consequently, the
share of exports in the national economy as a whole was also low (Nikolić
1931, 108-112). The export data should be further relativized. At the begin-
ning of the 1930s, Yugoslavia exported only 8% of its total maize harvest,
while the rest was required to satisfy the domestic demand (Nikolić 1931,
78). Maize was cultivated in all parts of the state, often also in the moun-
tains to the maximum altitude of 1,200 m, where special fast-growing va-
rieties were cultivated. With its high yield and energy value, maize was in-
dispensable in the diet of the people in the mountainous regions. In many
parts of Yugoslavia, fertility rates were so high that only maize with its high
yield was able to satisfy the demand for food. It is therefore not surprising
that areas dedicated to maize cultivation kept expanding during the en-
tire interwar period, while the productivity also increased (Graph 10). The
greatest expansion of maize fields was recorded in the Yugoslav part of the
Pannonian Plain – amounting to as much as 31% in the west, and up to 20%
in the east. On average, since the 1920s and until the onset of World War
II, the Yugoslav maize fields expanded by 21%. In the same period, pro-
ductivity kept growing as well. The increases in yield slowed down some-
what only in the first half of the 1930s during the Great Depression, when
exports were hampered and a few poor harvests were also recorded. The
152
Graph 10. Maize production in Yugoslavia in the interwar period
Source: Tomasevich 1955, 476.
the most important producers and exporters of maize in Europe. On aver-
age, maize exports represented 12.35% of all the exports due to the agrari-
an character of the Yugoslav state before World War II. Consequently, the
share of exports in the national economy as a whole was also low (Nikolić
1931, 108-112). The export data should be further relativized. At the begin-
ning of the 1930s, Yugoslavia exported only 8% of its total maize harvest,
while the rest was required to satisfy the domestic demand (Nikolić 1931,
78). Maize was cultivated in all parts of the state, often also in the moun-
tains to the maximum altitude of 1,200 m, where special fast-growing va-
rieties were cultivated. With its high yield and energy value, maize was in-
dispensable in the diet of the people in the mountainous regions. In many
parts of Yugoslavia, fertility rates were so high that only maize with its high
yield was able to satisfy the demand for food. It is therefore not surprising
that areas dedicated to maize cultivation kept expanding during the en-
tire interwar period, while the productivity also increased (Graph 10). The
greatest expansion of maize fields was recorded in the Yugoslav part of the
Pannonian Plain – amounting to as much as 31% in the west, and up to 20%
in the east. On average, since the 1920s and until the onset of World War
II, the Yugoslav maize fields expanded by 21%. In the same period, pro-
ductivity kept growing as well. The increases in yield slowed down some-
what only in the first half of the 1930s during the Great Depression, when
exports were hampered and a few poor harvests were also recorded. The
152
