THE CONCEPT OF FALLOW IN THE PRINCIPALITY OF SERBIA - BETWEEN AGRICULTURAL THEORY AND PRACTICE

Abstract

In agrarian systems of existential agriculture, basic question is how to maintain the level of fertility of cultivated land, and plowing, organic fertilizer and crop rotation represented the answer. In medieval and early modern Europe, this problem was solved by leaving the land fallow, by the introduction of crop rotation, by nitrogen fixing legumes and fodder, later by clover, and by animal manure whose quantity increased with the transition to stable animal husbandry, leading to gradual abolition of fallow. Implementation of different agrarian techniques to maintain soil fertility was followed by a shortening and disappearance of fallow in the second half of the 18^th century in Western Europe and by its replacement with crop rotation and intensive fertilization. Improvements in agrarian techniques led towards soil fertility enhancement and resulted with the transformation of existential into market oriented agriculture, marking the beginning of the end of the peasant society and its economy based on the principle of self-sufficiency. More and more intensive use of innovations not only raised agricultural production, but allowed the gradual release of labor to other sectors of the economy, thus opening the space for accelerated economic development. The disappearance of fallow was essentially related to this process.

On the other hand, the development of agriculture in Serbia had a different dynamics. Serbia was primarily an agricultural country, but with a predominant small peasant household, underdeveloped agricultural production and low productivity. Some of the previously mentioned agricultural techniques, especially the fallow, were applied on the territory of the Principality of Serbia, but with regional and local specificities. Short fallow system, known from the literature and European practice as two-field, three-field, or multiple-field system, and followed by crop rotation and treatment, especially plowing, of fields left as fallow, was not dominantly present in Serbia. Common practice was turning the field to meadow or pasture, to regain its fertility with time. At the same time, in Serbian literature and historical sources, the term 'fallow' was used, but with a meaning of multiple plowing of arable land. At the current level of development of agrarian techniques of existential agriculture of Serbian peasants, the phrase ‘fallow’ usually meant autumn plowing for springtime planting, or every kind of plowing which is not immediately followed by sowing.