Iskustva mladih obiteljskih poljoprivrednih gospodarstvenika (OPG-ovaca) u Bjelovarskobilogorskoj i Požeško-slavonskoj županiji

The aim of this article is to empirically examine the experience of living in rural areas and working in agriculture among young farmers on family-run farms in two Croatian counties: Bjelovar-Bilogora and Požega-Slavonia County. The theoretical part of the paper conceptual-izes the contemporary socio-economic context of the quality of life and work in agriculture in Croatian rural areas, with a special emphasis on young people as key drivers of rural development. By operationalizing selected objective and subjective aspects of the quality of life, a qual-itative research was conducted using the method of semi-structured interviews with ten young farmers from family-run farms in these two counties. Bjelovar-Bilogora and Požega-Slavonia are two agriculturally strong neighbouring counties in North Croatia, one with higher and one with lower population density. The interviews encompassed questions about the advantages and disadvantages as well as obstacles and challenges faced by young farmers who are living in rural areas and working in agriculture, and their assessment of the satisfaction with rural life and future perspectives. The interviewees said the advantages of living in rural areas included personal ownership of house and land, fresh air, natural surroundings, peace and quiet, healthy life, and freedom. The disadvantages were mainly seen in poor infrastructure. The positive sides of being employed in agriculture were “being your own boss”, “working from home”, job security, autonomy in deciding upon your work hours, heterogeneity of different jobs within the occupation, possi-bility of progress and development, and healthy working environment. The negative sides were lack of popularity of this occupation, lack of time, dependency on external climate factors, large quantity of workload, instability of prices, and uncertainty that comes with this kind of agricultural production. The biggest obstacles for working in agriculture according to young farmers on family-run farms were administrative obstacles, lack of sufficient areas of land, cor-ruption, and nepotism.