Unstable weather and frequent shifts of extremely hot days and storms have caused enormous damage to agriculture as well. However, this is not the only problem for manufacturers. Complicated procedures, slow administration and, as usual, politics. For years, significant amounts of grants from European funds remain unused, and BH producers and production are at low levels. The candidate status for our country has opened up new opportunities within the EU funds. But the question is whether we will know how to use them.
Almost one billion euros intended for agriculture, in the past six years, was available to candidate countries and potential candidates within the instrument of pre-accession assistance for rural development IPARD, which is implemented by the European Union. However, BiH, due to political disagreements, never had the opportunity to fulfill the conditions.
“We have EU accession funds, but up there, at the BiH level, they can’t come to an agreement. I even see that they pay some penalties, but basically it would mean a lot to agricultural producers, because these are grants, which go directly to production, but our politicians at the BiH level do not want it to be implemented,” says Savo Bakajlić, president of the Association of Agricultural Producers of Semberija and Majevica.
Economic analyst Milenko Stanić notes that politicians always put political goals above economic ones and look for points of divergence and conflict before even discussing economic goals: “Of course, when you assume economic and political goals, there is room for arguments, and then there are delays, non-withdrawal of funds, so investors redirect funds to those where there are no such tensions”.
And the help is BH producers much needed. The potentials are huge, but unused. I can’t do it alone.
“If someone appeared to invest, because there are people – Crnjelovo, Obraska and surrounding villages – who would start mini-factories for vegetable processing, it would be a strong support for producers. It doesn’t have to be imported from Macedonia, it’s getting harder and harder to sell local vegetables in market chains, which skipped Semberija. It is imported from Albania, Turkey, Serbia – just not from Bijeljina”, says producer Mladen Lazić.
Through numerous development projects, the EU helps the agricultural production of both primary producers and processors. Nevertheless, in the largest BiH granaries, there are still a small number of those who decide to compete.
“There is interest, but when producers come to us to find out about this public call and when we explain what awaits them and what the conditions are, then they give up.” And everyone is really ready to invest their funds and the EU aid is really significant – but it would still have to be adapted to our conditions”, points out Sreten Vučković, head of the Department of Agriculture of the City of Bijeljina.
Another problem is the lack of a state ministry of agriculture, which makes the path to EU funds difficult. As expected, the citizens lose. Progress could be achieved through the Rural Development Strategy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is currently under construction.
“We are working on enabling the use of IPARD funds. However, for that, like every country, we have to go through certain agreements and negotiations. When we manage to do that, then our producers and processors will really feel the support of European funds”, says Assistant Minister of Agriculture of RS Zoran Maletić.
Until then, we are talking about the consequences – insufficient economic and economic growth.
“It certainly affects the economic situation in the country and the economic environment, and BiH is currently somewhere around 30% of the EU average when we look at the gross income per capita. Membership in the EU should not be considered from the level of 70% of the achieved European average in this regard,” Stanić specifies.
Macroeconomic policy in BiH does not exist in the true sense of the word. More intensive development of agricultural production, experts remind, could also mean support for the overall development of rural areas in all segments of life.
