Dissatisfied with the method and dynamics of the payment of damages caused by the appearance of the African plague, the farmers of Semberija are asking the entity ministry for a meeting and answers on the payment of the remaining compensation. Otherwise, they say, they will start protests and fight for their rights.
Direct damages caused by the appearance of the African plague in Semberija amount to 10 million BAM – indirect damages are much higher. And farmers without the possibility to resume production. It’s as if they are orphans, says Trifun Đukić – no one has compensated them for the damage: “We give with our hands, we ask with our feet, we have to go to protests, not to mention that we waste time – we are victims of some party fights.” .
Of the 8 million remaining damages, an additional two million marks were paid out last week. Farmers are dissatisfied with the fact that, as they state, compensations have already been paid in full in other municipalities, and they claim that the agreement that compensations should be paid in the order in which farmers’ requests were submitted was not respected.
“Why were Šamac, Ugljevik, Modriča, Gradiška – who were euthanized after us – paid in a very short time? Yes, there are fewer of them, but why weren’t they correct if they said that they would pay according to the date?”, asks Nenad Nikolić.
The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the RS, Savo Minic, said that they are following the dynamics that are planned within the dynamics of the payment of the Government of the RS: “It will be resolved in the next 7 days, after that the payment of the other incentives will begin”.
The information that 2,000 pigs were imported to Semberija angered local farmers who cannot resume production because current regulations strictly forbid them to do so. They ask the authorities to urgently regulate the issue of resuming production.
“If this does not happen in an adequate way, we must be aware that we will be left without a pig fund and we will also be left without farmers. Producers must receive funds as a matter of urgency, many have lost profits, paid the guild for all this – you see that even today – today the African plague is popping up in some places, and it means that we have to live with it in the future as well”, warns Savo Bakajlić, president of the Association of Agricultural Associations of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
And that means that they will no longer be able to produce in the way it was done until now. Support for capital investments is needed.
“For people to prepare fences, because we have to be aware, all producers, that it will no longer be possible to work the way it was done until now. “Farms must be fenced, closed – biosecurity measures must be implemented”, warns Slobodan Petrić.
To date, around 45,000 pigs have been euthanized in Semberija. Farmers are also dissatisfied with the fact that at the time of euthanasia the price of a head was about six BAM, and now it reaches up to 15 marks.
