Recently, a public call for the use of state agricultural land was closed in Odžak, although the previous one was not realized either. That is why 1,600 hectares of state agricultural land in Odžak will not be sown this season either.
30-year-old Semir Omičević is one of the youngest farmers in Odžak. And while his peers go in search of a better life to the countries of Western Europe due to the government’s careless attitude towards the citizens, Semir is waiting to enter the possession of the state agricultural land that he received for use last year.
“I got about twenty hectares there in Novi Grad. I haven’t taken possession yet. Neither did the minister call me to sign, nor anything,” he says.
Of the 30 farmers from Odžak who, at the recently closed public call of the municipality, preliminarily received land for use, 27 of them did not receive consent from the cantonal level. Željko Stanić from Prud failed to pass the public invitation even though all the submitted documentation, he says, is in order.
“According to the scoring, I should have had 55 points, they took 3 points from me in this competition for animal husbandry, so I was effectively left without land again as a disadvantage from the veterinary station date,” Stanic adds.
Two public calls followed after the ten-year contract for the use of state agricultural land expired for the company “Poljoprivrednik” from Derventa. There is no consent from the cantonal level for their implementation. Farmers sent their complaints to the relevant federal ministry, but the case was returned to the municipal level. In the Association of Farmers “Žito” from Odžak, they believe that the cantonal Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Mato Brkić, is suspending the process until the Law on Agriculture is adopted at the cantonal level, which would again benefit the company “Poljoprivrednik”. Even the head of the Odžak municipality, Nadi Ćulap, who promised that a new public call would not be announced until the last year’s was implemented, still does not believe. Neither the minister nor the mayor responded to our requests for statements.
“We have real potential in everything. And as for the land and everything. Everything is there. We just need to work. And the government needs to push us a little, to give power to our people, so that our people cultivate our land here. These are millions of marks that are brought into our municipality again and again, but nobody seems to be interested in that,” Omicevic adds.
Almost half of the population moved out of Odzak in the past few years. Problems with unallocated state land have been going on for years. If they are not resolved soon, the question is who will cultivate this land.
