CROP PRODUCTION AND LAND RESOURCES IN GALICIA DURING THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN PERIOD

Abstract

Summary. The purpose of this study is to analyze the processes that took place in crop production within the context of Galicia agriculture development on the cusp of the 19th and 20th centuries. Conclusions. The article recognizes the impact of popular science education, which was one of the key criteria for the introduction of the up-to-date methods of economic management. This had a positive effect on the economic development of the region, which lagged far behind other regions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the study period, there was a breakthrough in the methods and approaches to farming inasmuch as processes of mechanization, novel tillage techniques and land reclamation were introduced. The agricultural processing industry began to develop intensively coupled with a serious consideration given to selective breeding of animals. All these aspects have led to a significant improvement in the industry’s performance. The subject has been partly studied in Poland and Austria whilst it was insufficiently considered in Ukraine. Therefore, the development of each sector of agriculture of Galicia at the turn of the century requires an extensive review. The research methodology. The article offers an attempt to analyze the development of crop production, the leading branch of agriculture. The study employed a comparative analysis, thereby allowing us to establish the dynamics of the crop production development in the region. The scientific novelty. The archive materials of Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Cracow, Warsaw, and Vienna were consulted for a comprehensive characterization of crop production in Galicia. The historiography of the research topic is divided into several periods: published papers of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, the interwar period, the Soviet era, the surveys of independent Ukraine as well as modern international studies. Analysis of the sources proved the positive dynamics of the crop production development in the vast majority of its types. This was influenced by a number of objective factors, one of which was the scientific extension and the development of farming research in Galicia, the opening of specialized facilities, educational and scientific institutions that studied the issues faced by the economic managers of the industry.