No matter how much each of us looked at the Russian-Ukrainian crisis individually and was convinced that it would not affect socio-economic, economic, and other things, that is not the case. The inevitable increase in fuel and gas prices, reduced exports from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to these countries, which is not negligible, especially when it comes to pharmaceuticals and agricultural products, does not look well.
Natural, predial, and every other area in BiH is little or almost unused. It could be used much more. Then we would certainly not depend on others and be in the situation we are in, especially if we take into account chain price increases. Specifically, when we talk about agriculture and livestock. BiH imports everything from water and fertilizers to cereals.
The question now is whether and how much we can rely on our own strengths. Farmers think little or not at all.
”Allocations for agriculture are very small, and given this situation, we will not be able to last long,” warned agricultural producer Eldin Glibanovic.
It used to take about 1.000 BAM to cultivate and prepare for sowing a one-hectare field. This year, the owner will need more than 2.000 BAM for that plot, which speaks a lot about the price increases. The Russian-Ukrainian crisis also led to consequences. There is fertilizer, but only in the amount needed for a quarter, because it has an ingredient that comes from Russia, and it is used by many countries that produce fertilizer needed for spring sowing in our country.
”In ten or fifteen days, we will start sowing corn. We are sowing corn for silage production and we need a lot of funds,” Glibanovic stated.
According to economic analysts, the Russian-Ukrainian crisis has a direct impact when it comes to the economy, but also exports from our country because of the chaos in the market, supply, demand, and restructuring and adaptation to the crisis. In this situation, the country could do a lot.
”We should now provide as many import alternatives as possible for our farmers, which means that if farmers who rely on Ukraine as a source of factors of production have difficulties, they should be helped to adapt very quickly and get another source of imports,” said economic analyst Admir Cavalic.
And in order to rely on their own forces, crisis headquarters for agricultural sowing should be formed, records of all necessary resources should be kept, and every meter of agricultural land should be sown. After that, process the raw material into products that have a longer expiration date.
But this effect and orderliness of the system are very difficult to achieve, especially in a country like BiH. Especially since in this situation, commodity reserves are insufficient or non-existent. For now, we can only be silent observers.
