The trends in maize and wheat production in the Republic of Serbia

1University of Priština, Faculty of Agriculture, Kosovska Mitrovica – Lešak, Kopaonička bb, 38219 Lešak, Kosovo and Metohia, Serbia. 2University Union-Nikola Tesla, Faculty of Management, Njegoševa 1a, 21205 Sremski Karlovci, Serbia. 3Faculty of Information Technology, Metropolitan University, Tadeuša Košćuška 63, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia. 4Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Maksima Gorkog 30, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia. 5University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Natural Science, Radoja Domanovića 12, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia. 6University of Niš, Faculty of Agriculture, Kosančićeva 4,37000 Kruševac, Serbia *Corresponding author: milosavgrcak@gmail.com Received 30 May 2020; Accepted 14 September 2020 A B S T R A C T The total area under cereals during 2018 remained at a long-term stable level of about 1.7 million hectares. Maize and wheat are the most important crops grown in the Republic of Serbia. In the structure of harvested areas under cereals, maize dominates (53%), followed by wheat (38%). The objective of this paper was to determine if there was a recognisable trend line for the production of these crops in the 2007–2018 period. The yield data (Area harvested (ha), Production (tonnes), Production (t/ha)) were collected from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. Calculations of relevant and valid trends using central tendency measures, dispersion measures, relative ratios and percentage growth were used for statistical data processing. During the observation period, the average annual growth in maize yield was 6.38%, while the average annual growth in wheat yield was slightly lower, 2.00%. However, it is not possible to create an appropriate trend line for any of the variables in order to predict a future time period, since the coefficient of determination is low.