Abundant amounts of intense rainfall caused great damage in Herzegovina. Numerous agricultural crops were destroyed. So far, producers of early fruit, varieties such as cherry and strawberry, have fared the worst. The few fruits that have sprouted are of poor quality and almost unusable.
The branches bent under the fruits, but what kind… Rotten, cracked, and worm-eaten. The first cherries were destroyed by the rains this year.
“I don’t think anything will come of these early cherries. They either cracked or crumbled from too much water,” says farmer Jasmina Cusic.
Jasmina does not even have cherries in her store. Strawberries are one of the early varieties of fruit trees grown in Herzegovina – but the weather has left its mark on them as well.
“One-third of the strawberries have sprouted, two-thirds have failed. And our strawberries are organic, so their shelf life is shortened… This year is very challenging and it will be difficult,” adds Jasmina.
Losses are inevitable, so much so that, experts warn, agricultural producers will not be able to properly service their obligations. They have already been used up – for pruning, fertilizing, and the like. And now, for example, there is no profit on cherries, but there are still costs.
“An additional technical measure has appeared – the removal of cracked, mummified fruits, which are a danger for rot to reach the fruit trees,” points out Ahmed Dzubur, professor at the Agro-Mediterranean Faculty of “Dzemal Bijedic” University in Mostar.
Professor Dzubur believes that there are solutions, at least to reduce losses to agricultural producers. He suggests declaring a natural disaster, then also assessing the damage.
“When the damage is discovered, then it is reacted to, as normal, responsible states do.”
Help to vulnerable farmers was missing even before. In the last five years alone, three have passed with heavy rains, frosts, winds… No one counted the damage, no one paid for it. Even with incentives, the situation is not better. From the federal level, for example, slightly more than 20 million BAM is allocated for the entire plant production, which includes fruit and vegetable growing and medicinal plants, and much more. In contrast to, say, the production of exclusively cow’s milk, which costs 53 million BAM. Producers like Jasmina, who has been engaged in the ecological cultivation of dozens of crops for years, do not expect help.
“Neither am I asking for anything nor am I getting anything. I sincerely hope that I will not get into that situation of asking for something,” concludes Jasmina Cusic.
