Enormous increases in the price of raw materials, oil, seeds, and fertilizers necessary for sowing, this year will certainly halve agricultural work, and yields could be much lower quality. In order to prevent the catastrophic situation, farmers in our country are advocating the introduction of the so-called AdBlue.
This is a proven measure that stimulates the development of agriculture because AdBlue is free of all excises and customs duties. As such, registered farmers would pour it into their machines at classic gas stations.
”We have a clear and loud position at the level of all associations of farmers in BiH that AdBlue must be introduced, because without it, production will be halved, and the lack of food will not be able to be compensated. We have a situation where the state received approximately 300 percent more taxes based on the increase in mineral fertilizers for spring and autumn sowing, and it did not affect the improvement of farmers’ working conditions,” said Savo Bakajlic, president of the Semberija Farmers’ Association and member of the BiH Farmers’ Association.
Bad atmosphere
”The atmosphere among farmers is extremely bad because they will have to reduce spring sowing. They do not have the money to pay for the implementation of all agro-technical measures. Last year we had production of seven to ten tons of wheat per hectare, and this year it will be three to five hectares,” Bakajlic emphasized.
Facilitation of agriculture was the topic of last week’s meeting of the entity prime ministers with the chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers.
As one of the measures, the federal government proposed allocating 50 liters of fuel per hectare of cultivated area. However, experts in the field of agronomy state that this measure is of a social character, expressing concern in the way it is distributed.
”It is still unknown how and in what way the farmers will get those 50 liters of fuel for tillage. The question is what will we do with those who have less than a hectare because it is known that the fragmented production is also present in our country. This is not a systemic solution, and the AdBlue is the only right option,”stated agronomist and secretary of agricultural associations in the Chamber of Commerce of Tuzla Canton, Suad Selimovic.
The government is proposing new measures, and it has not fulfilled the old obligation
The protection of domestic production as a story advocated by farmers still comes first. However, according to the producers, many will feel the consequences of the fact that the state has been making agriculture non-profit activity for years now.
”For example, the import lobby has placed an extremely large amount of meat on our market, and retail chains sell them at a fairly low price. The state has put our farmers in a miserable place and we are not asked anything. The problem is that in places they can decide on the improvement of agriculture, thegovernment finds people who have no knowledge about it. We want to work, we are not afraid of work, but changes must come,” Bakajlic concluded.
E.Dz.
Source: Klix.ba
