814.529 Analyzing Local Rural Systems, 2013 Summer Semester
Alpen Adria Universität, AAU - Lecturers: Willi Haas, Simron Jit in collaboration with
 University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Jan Těšitel and Jitka
Straková
 Masaryk University in Brno, Eva Fraňková
______________________________________________________________________
Lucie Jahnová
Andreas Magerl
Viktoria Soder
Anna Rosa Vollmann
Kathrin Wabnigg
______________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction:
Our interview partners were Kateřina Křováková and her husband Petr Křovák, a part time farmer
couple, who moved to the village of Klikov in 2008. The reason they moved to the Třeboň area was
because they wanted to live on the countryside and do agricultural work. Aim of the interview was to
understand how they organise their daily life and what that means referring to questions of
sustainability in the village of Klikov. Therefore we wanted to learn about their agricultural production
system in terms of material and energy flows from a systemic perspective, as well as time use and
income flows in regard to the role of subsidies. We were also interested in learning about their opinion
and as may be the case participation in nature conservation activities and their scale of involvement
concerning the biosphere reserve. Last but not least we aimed to define the social and economic
system boundaries from the information gathered.
When it comes to aspects of sustainability it is important to take the historical background and
development of the village into account. The village of Klikov, a former settlement for mainly workers
of iron ore and pottery industries has experienced a population decline during the past decades. The
young ‘part-time’ farmer couple settled in an area where most of the people tend to leave rather than
move to due to economic reasons. In our point of view important aspects of sustainability regarding
the village of Klikov are that new inhabitants like Kateřina and Petr Křovákovi are sustaining and
transforming the village and its surrounding landscape physically and culturally by transferring new
ideas, approaches and lifestyles.
In the following section we will first outline how we proceeded to conduct the interview. Following up
with some information about our interview partners Kateřina and Petr Křovákovi and present the
findings gathered from the interview. Finally we will summarize some reflections regarding the casestudy
in terms of sustainability.
2. Method:
2.1. Members and backgrounds
Our Team consisted of five students coming from very different backgrounds. Kathrin Wabnigg studied
Environmental Pedagogy, Viktoria Soder has a background in Cultural and Social Anthropology, Anna
Rosa Vollmann’s former study was international development, Lucie Jahnová studied Systematic
Botany and Ecology and Andreas Magerl has a bachelor degree in landscape planning and
architecture.
2.2. Division of Labour
We divided tasks for our interview as follows: We chose Lucie and Viktoria as the primary interviewers.
Since Lucie’s mother tongue is Czech we had the possibility of offering our correspondent a contact in
her own language which we thought might create a more comfortable situation for her and could in
case overcome any language barriers. Viktoria had already conducted interviews so she was
nominated second primary interviewer, due to her practical experiences. Anna Rosa, Andreas and
Kathrin were to take the minutes. Kathrin’s additional tasks were taking pictures and observing the
whole process.
2.3. Preparatory Work
When preparing our questionnaire we soon figured out that categorizing our questions into sub-groups
would help structuring the interview. According to our aims we decided to name the following
categories: Income flows, nature conservation, time use, agricultural production and social and
economic boundaries.
2.4. Interview setting
We met Kateřina Křovàkovà and her husband at their farm, shortly after they got home from work. She
walked us around their farmland while answering our questions. We started conducting the interview
with Kateřina Křovàkovà alone but her husband would join occasionally to help her out when she
encountered questions she could not answer completely. Due to her good English skills there never
was a language barrier at any point. The atmosphere was very relaxed and we found our
correspondent to be very open-minded and talkative. Soon our informant had answered all our
prepared questions and as the minute takers had joined the conversation, the situation had emerged
into a very relaxed talk.
3. The Informant:
Kateřina and Petr Křovákovi are a couple in their mid-thirties who moved to Klikov in 2008 from the
northern part of the country. The couple bought a farm and surrounding land from two brothers. One of
them moved away, the other one is still living next door. Our respondents originally never wanted to
live in this area, however, they found the farm on the Internet “by coincidence”.
Neither Kateřina nor Petr Křovákovi have any agricultural background. Their original intention of
moving to Klikov came from their wish to live on the countryside and do agriculture. Both of them have
to work in the city besides working on the farm. Kateřina Křovákovà works as a researcher at the
Faculty of Agriculture at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice and Petr Křovák is
doing administrative work in an construction office in Třeboň to generate additional income and sustain
their livelihood. Kateřina and Petr Křovákovi are working, living and shopping in different places and
they spend a lot of time commuting to work every day.
Our correspondents’ work at the farm includes renovating the house, ecological agriculture and
permaculture gardening. Their motto in gardening is: “I do not cultivate anything that I cannot eat.” By
all means practicing agriculture in an organic way is crucial to them.
4. Findings
This section outlines our findings from the conducted interview. We focused our research on the main
issues as defined in the preparatory work. The outcomes of our research are being discussed in the
following subsections.
4.1. Background
During the communist era, the land around Klikov and the neighboring villages was organized in
collectives. Due to this fact, all land in this area is very wide and large scale structured. The
researched farm is a relic from the communist era and a former community farming building. The
farmland is originally organized into pasture stripes.
Kateřina and Petr Křovákovi’s farmhouse and land was formerly owned by two brothers and split after
the Velvet Revolution. The couple bought it from the one brother who moved to the city and are now
neighbouring the other brother. Kateřina and Petr Křovákovi’s land accounts for six hectares of
pastures and six and a half hectares of forests, which is, according to our interview partner, not
enough to sustain two people. Additionally, they rent one and a half hectares of pastures near
Františkov nad Lužnicí.
4. 2. Income Flows
As mentioned in the previous paragraph the size of Kateřina Křováková’s and Petr Křovák’s farm is
too small to sustain their way of life. According to our respondents, at least 20 hectares would be
required to allow a self-sufficient lifestyle. Kateřina Křovàkovà and her husband run their farm partly
because they enjoy the work. On the other hand because they can supplement their income for
instance by selling lambs and sheep meat. The wool from their sheep is not being sold because it
does not fetch an appropriate price in the Czech Republic. Kateřina Křovàkovà uses it for her own
production of knitwear.
To sustain their life on the farm, the couple needs a stable income and hence depends on their salary.
Besides the income from their day-to-day work, Kateřina Křováková and her husband also rely on
subsidies for their farmland, which come partly from the EU and partly from the Czech government.
However, it would not be possible for them to give up their jobs and live from full-time farming due to
the insecurity of the future persistence of subsidies and the instability of the sheep market.
4.3. Agricultural Production
Kateřina and Petr Křovákovi’s way of farming is basically organic, no artificial fertilizers are being
used. At first, they started their farm with some sheep. Later two horses were added which are used
for riding and occasionally for pulling. They currently own 30 sheep, for which they rented additional
meadows 8 km away from their farm, as well as some goats. They take advantage of natural
processes supporting the agricultural production. The horses are used for preparing the ground, for
example by pulling ploughs. In addition, their manure is used as fertilizer. This means in socioecological
terms that the material and energy inputs are quite low compared to the outputs. According
to our respondents, they need “the nature to help them doing their work”, not only because both of
them are convinced that organic farming is a better way in comparison to conventional agriculture but
also due to a lack of time. However, curing their animals from parasites such as ticks still requires the
use of chemicals.
4.4. Nature conservation
Mrs and Mr Křovàkovi’s farm is situated in the Třeboňsko Protected Landscape Area which has been
declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. This area is well known for fish farming and therefore full of
artificial channels that are used to fill huge fishpond systems.
According to our respondents, there are several problems with the soil around the Třeboň area. Due to
the low slopes of their pastures, problems with water drainage arise. This results in muddy and
unsuitable grounds for farming. To tackle this problem Mrs Křovàkovà and her husband plan to create
some small water bodies to improve the drain. Additionally, these ponds shall become a habitat for
amphibians.
At the moment, Kateřina Křovàkovà and her husband do not engage in the agricultural programme of
the biosphere reserve. However, the couple plans to plant trees on their pastures. On the one hand,
these trees should serve as shelter from the wind and provide some shade for the animals. On the
other hand, by planting ancient fruit tree species they would become eligible for subsidies by the
biosphere reserve.
A further problem which can be observed is the bee mortality. Despite the abundance of food for the
bee hives they do not manage to outlive the winter.
4.5. Time use
As mentioned in the previous sections, Kateřina and Petr Křovákovi both have full-time jobs and both
work eight hours a day. Furthermore, they have to commute in total around three hours a day to and
from their workplaces. A private car is used to reach a nearby bus station, where they switch to public
transport. The rest of their time the couple takes care of their farm and their animals.
Because Kateřina Křovàkovà and her husband spend most of their time working, both in the office and
on the farm, there is not much time left for social activities. Due to their time consuming lifestyle they
only have a few friends in the village of Klikov, as for instance Marta, the owner of the pottery.
As far as labour division in the household is concerned, Kateřina Křováková is responsible for the
housework and her husband helps out with the heavy physical work. All other tasks are shared
equally.
We did not touch the topic of children, since it was our first contact with our respondent and it is a
personal and sensitive question. What we can assume from our interview, though, is that it is almost
impossible to lead such a time consuming life and additionally raise children.
4.6. Social and economic boundaries
To conduct a social ecological research it is important to draw system boundaries. However, in our
case study this is not an easy task, since the geographical, social and economic boundaries do not
always correspond. On the one hand, both Kateřina and Petr Křovàkovi’s centre of life is located in
Klikov, where they live and spend their leisure time. On the other hand our informants told us that
lower prices and higher quality convince them to buy their groceries across the border in Austria. Their
professional life, however takes place in the Czech Republic but outside the village. Hence they
cultivate social relationships with friends and colleagues at work as well as in the area around Klikov.
All these activities are geographically separated but they are linked through economic activities.
Therefore we chose the village of Klikov to be our system boundary, keeping in mind that it is open for
flows. For example, the income from their regular day-to-day jobs which is created beyond the
boundary contributes a crucial part to the maintenance of their lifestyle within the system. Furthermore
shopping across the border means that money for personal recreation is also spent outside the system
boundaries. The additional pastures are not included in the system as well.
4.7. Sustainability of the village
The village of Klikov and the surrounding areas do not offer high quality soils in agricultural terms. The
Třeboň area has never been known for its agriculture. Traditionally, the economic drivers of the village
have always been the production of pottery and the extraction of iron ore. People living in Klikov have
ever since been workers, not farmers.
As stated before, Kateřina and Petr Křovákovi also mentioned that they had problems concerning the
soil. The major issue is that they lack expertise of how to work this specific ground. As our informants
told us, the older inhabitants still have the knowledge of how to best practice agricultural work in the
Třeboň area. Due to the fact that most of Klikov’s younger inhabitants leave the village and no
significant agricultural activities take place in the region, knowledge gets lost. To say it in Mrs
Křováková’s words: “People here are disappearing” and thus all the expertise.
There is not really much agriculture in the region of South Bohemia, neither conventional nor organic.
However, some small scale farming activities - to which our informants contribute - do take place in the
Třeboň area. In order to support these farmers with advice and scientific knowledge an initiative called
‘Daphne’ has been founded by a group of scientists (biologists, agricultural scientists etc.).
Furthermore, efforts have been made to adjust and stabilize the slope of the landscape through
ecological landscape engineering as many people in the region have problems commonly occurring
from erosion.
Nowadays, tourism is the main source of income in the whole region. Nevertheless, Mrs Křovàkovà
and her husband are not interested in earning additional income through agritourism. They do not
want to assume full responsibility, since the tourists might be harmed by their animals. More important,
they do not have enough time for it.
Last but not least, in respect of the sustainability of the village of Klikov, immigration is a major factor.
Many young people move away from rural areas to find jobs or study in cities. Therefore, national and
international immigrants are the ones who transform the structures of local systems by implementing
new ideas and lifestyles as well as new practices and approaches. On the downside, there exists a
gap between the new inhabitants and long-time residents because immigrants might be regarded by
some as “intruders” to the established village society. The participation in the soccer-club acts as an
indicator for integration into the community. It can be observed that newly arrived inhabitants mainly
tend to rather not participate in this institution.
Whether or not this is the case in this study we cannot say for sure from our perception.
5. Reflection:
Kateřina and Petr Křovákovi may not be the usual mid-thirties couple living in the Czech Republic.
They decided to move their center of life to a region which is not very well known for its agricultural
activities. It also occurs rarely that younger people move to Klikov, a village that suffers heavily from
population decline. This leads us to the following questions: why does a young couple accept the
challenge to live in an area where the population is shrinking, infrastructure is poor and land is hard to
be processed?
We came to the conclusion that sustainability in this case needs to be looked at from two different
points of views: In the first place, sustainability in terms of personal lifestyle and ideals of our
informants has to be taken into account. Secondly, the impact the couple has in terms of social,
ecological and material input on their surrounding environment - the village of Klikov - needs to be
looked at. In order to do this, first we needed to define the system boundaries, which turned out to be
one of the most challenging tasks since the couple lives, works and shops in different places.
Especially when it comes to financial issues, allocating flows arise to be difficult. Several activities, as
mentioned before, take place outside of the system boundaries. This leads to an economic drawback
for the region as well as longer driveways for our informants. Consequently, higher levels of fossil fuels
consumption, material and monetary inputs occur.
In our point of view aspects of sustainability in this case-study refer to our respondents’ activities of
physically maintaining the buildings and processing the ground in an ecologically compatible way as
well as transforming the structure of the local community. By planting ancient fruit tree species and by
organic farming they are trying to nurture biodiversity and by their presence in the village they alter the
demographic structure.
The most important motivator for our informants is their way of life. They spend nearly all their free
time working on their farm. This indicates that it means alot to them.
In regard of the village, it became clear that keeping a local system, which formerly depended on an
industry that doesn’t exist anymore, requires immigrants and a transformation of income possibilities. It
therefore needs people like Kateřina and Petr Křovàkovi’s and new sources of income for example
agri-tourism. Subsidies also play a crucial role in terms of new income flows for the region which,
referring to our correspondents might be an insecure income source because their availability in the
future is very uncertain. Ultimately, tourism might act as one of the main opportunities for the region as
income provider in the future, as long as humans in the region stick to the guidelines implemented by
the Biosphere Reserve authorities.
To round up our findings it can be said that Kateřina and Petr Křovákovi show that an alternative way
of life can be possible. They managed to compromise between their day-to-day work and their life on
the countryside, which occurs to be crucial for them.
On the level of the village it is to say that national and international immigrants can transform social
structures of local systems by implementing new ideas and lifestyles as well as new practices and
approaches but integration into an established social system tends to be rather difficult.