POLJOPRIVREDA HERCEGOVINE U VRIJEME FRA DIDAKA BUNTIĆA
AGRICULTURE OF HERZEGOVINA IN TIME OF DIDAK BUNTIĆ

Summary/Abstract: In the late 19th and the early 20th century, in Herzegovina (and beyond) was active father Didak Buntić, its spiritual leader, enlightener and popular tribune – Father of Herzegovina. He had a wonderful feeling for a farm labourer; he established schools, built churches, roads and post offices. He had a special sense of economy especially of agriculture as a basic activity for man’s survival. He was also active outside the scope of his spiritual obligations and was the first to establish Peasants’ Association and addressed the problem of tobacco buy-off and its price as a vital issue. But he did not confined himself only to tobacco as the only suitable crop for the Herzegovinian rocky ground; he taught the peasant labourers and students how to graft wild plants, used to procure seedlings of pear, fig, cherry, nut, plum trees and those of vine and distribute them to the people. The blessed and fertile Herzegovina, neglected and exploited by its conquerors, was in fact not poor. Father Didak promoted cattle breeding, and bee-farming; he also recognised the need for afforestation of bare rocky grounds, and for land reclamation: Mostarsko and Buško Wetlands, and Bekijsko Polje Valley. He persistently warned the people of the need of work saying: „He who does not look after his own field, shall sweat in the field of another“. His person radiates the spirit of enlightenment, justice and the fight for the right of his people (like Leonidas), and like Moses saved the poor from famine. With his personal example he showed the broadness of spirit, human virtues, persistence and love for his native land, which he wanted to turn into a real Misr. He really deserves the words: “Ecce homo”.

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