Factors affecting the persistence of traditional agricultural landscapes in Slovakia during the collectivization of agriculture

Abstract

Collectivization of agriculture (1950s–1970s) was one of the most important periods in landscape development in Slovakia. Traditionally managed agricultural landscapes, that covered more than half of the Slovak territory, were transformed into large-scale fields and only fragments of traditional agricultural landscapes survived. We mapped the remaining traditional agricultural landscapes using aerial photos and historical maps. We then statistically analyzed the various geographical factors and their influence on the transformation process of traditional and collectivized fields, i.e., slope steepness, soil fertility, distance from settlements and isolation from regional capital cities. The comparison was performed using classification tree analysis. We constructed a set of decision rules that explain why fields were managed traditionally or collectivized. Our findings show that traditional agricultural fields were more likely to persist on steep terrain, less fertile soils, and on locations that were closer to the settlements, but more isolated from the regional capital cities. Steepness played the most important role: small-scale fields located on steep areas were not accessible to heavy machinery and therefore, frequently survived the collectivization. We show that the selected geographical factors are good explanatory variables for the collectivization of arable fields and orchards. For vineyards and grasslands, however, the explanatory power of the selected geographical factors is lower, and we suspect that other factors, not depicted in the analysis play an important role.