Higher levels of farm subsidies this year

On his tour of the Municipality of Ilijaš, Minister of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry Šemsudin Dedić met with the municipal mayor Akif Fazlić and his associates to discuss the challenges in agriculture and water management.

Last year farmers from Ilijaš received 1.3 million KM in farm subsidies out of the total of 5.2 million KM approved by the Ministry for the farmers in the Canton Sarajevo.

– All outstanding subsidies will be paid to farmers shortly. The preparations for this year’s budget are well underway and we are currently working towards increasing farm subsidies this year in order to offset the recent spike in the prices of raw materials, said minister Dedić.

– Agriculture and food production certainly offer plenty of opportunities and we stand ready to support investments that add value and contribute to job growth in our municipality – said mayor Fazlić, thanking Minister Dedić for his visit.    

During his visit, Minister Dedić met with farmers who praised minister’s efforts in ensuring the timeliness of support payments during his term of office, while stressing the need to increase the farm subsidy allocations in this year.    

Minister Dedić also visited dairy farm IMEA from Misoča and cow farm Salčin AE in Vogošća. In Misoča his host was Admir Kahriman who spoke about the farm support payments that helped him expand his herd and purchase the agricultural machinery, leading in turn to better competitiveness of his farm.

The structural measures promoted by the Ministry also helped Farm Salčin AE achieve a higher level of modernization as the procurement of high-quality breeding stock, modern equipment and machinery greatly contributed to the improvement of the farm.

Farmers were also briefed on the opportunities the Ministry offers through its project units in the field of rural infrastructure, land irrigation, start packages, cool storage facilities, procurement of fruit drying kilns and other equipment.