MINIĆ: LARGEST CAPITAL INVESTMENTS IN AGRICULTURE IN CRITICAL YEAR

BIJELJINA, JULY 27 /SRNA/ - According to the Hungarian Government's support program for agricultural producers in Republika Srpska, so far 650 users throughout Srpska, of which 150 in Semberija, have purchased 1,200 agricultural machines, with a subsidy of up to 70 percent, the Minister of Agriculture has said today of Forestry and Water Management of Srpska Savo Minić.

In Bijeljina, Minić attended the delivery of agricultural machinery to 13 producers as part of a project financially supported by the Government of Hungary and conveyed greetings to the farmers and all participants of this program on behalf of the Government of Srpska and the President of the Republic Milorad Dodik, stating that this is a project that Dodik agreed with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. "The project of the Government of Hungary, together with the capital investments of the Government of Srpska, will enable a significant modernization of mechanization and, in the long term, higher productivity and better competitiveness of the domestic agrarian," said Minić. He said that capital investments in agriculture this year will be higher than in any of the previous five combined, and that in an extremely difficult year in which there is a poor crop, quality and price of wheat, storms and African swine fever. "Modern mechanization will contribute to our farmers being more competitive on the market, but awareness will have to change that production under the open sky is something we will have to forget without insurance, and we will look for ways to participate in it as much as possible and include as many users as possible." Minić stressed. In a statement to journalists, he stated that African swine fever was confirmed in Ribnik and Čajniče and that it is spreading, which he will discuss today in Bijeljina with veterinary inspectors from the local and republic levels, and he also announced a meeting in Brčko with representatives of Serbia and Croatia to the issue of the fight against the spread of disease. Regarding wheat, Minić said that it is a commodity on the stock market and that the Government cannot influence its price, but also that the Government of Srpska has paid producers BAM 500 per hectare and 75 pence in fuel, which is more than BAM 13 million in support for wheat producers. He added that at the BiH level there is obstruction to the point of absurdity when it comes to attempts to introduce measures to protect local farmers. The company "Kite" based in Bijeljina, representative of the brand of the world's leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery "John Deere", held a presentation of Hungarian agricultural machinery in Bijeljina. The Hungarian Government's aid project to farmers in Srpska is implemented by the "Progresus" Foundation, and Igor Požgaj from this foundation said at the meeting that according to the Hungarian Government's support program for agricultural producers in Republika Srpska, they have so far paid 70 percent of the machines for 405 users. "We have enough funds and we are moving forward with the allocation under the same conditions of a subsidy of up to 70 percent, and the new public call that will follow soon will be extended to food processors as well," announced Požgaj.