From farm to e-agriculture

Agriculture accounts for 12% in Serbia’s GDP and similarly, the agricultural population makes for approximately 12% of overall population. Even though we see this sector as one of the greatest development opportunities, we are characterized by low productivity, given that one Serbian farmer produces food for 15 people, while the average in European Union countries is between 50 and 80 citizens. Observing the structure of created value of agricultural production, 70% is generated from plant production and 30% from livestock, while there is a contrasting situation in the EU.

NALED designated the improvement of doing business conditions in agriculture as a strategic priority, bringing together the most significant producers in the sector within the Food and Agriculture Alliance. NALED’s new working body will provide support in developing the key development policies and eliminating the administrative obstacles that are not even adequately represented in the Grey Book – only three recommendations refer to the agriculture sector. 

One of the examples of regulations that face problems in application is the Rulebook on using incentives for organic livestock production. The Rulebook prevents a large number of households engaged in organic livestock breeding from using the incentives, while favorizing large “industrial” producers. It prescribes that the incentives may be provided only for high-quality breeding dairy cows that give large amounts of milk, thus discriminating organic livestock producers who do not focus on the quantity and keep cattle that have been traditionally raised in our region for decades. Even though a new Rulebook was adopted in 2017, further being twice reviewed this year, NALED’s recommendation on designing the criteria has still not been accepted.

This also brings us to a systemic problem – the complicated procedure for awarding incentives. The Directorate for Agrarian Payments has recently become a beneficiary of financial agreement with the European Commission which provided 175 million EUR from the EU funds for Serbian agriculture sector. It remains to be seen in what manner the limited capacities of the Directorate will be used for distribution of these funds, as well as the funds from the national incentives budget. There is also a need for optimization of processes and databases used by the Directorate, in order to make the registration of agricultural households, registration for incentives and payments as simplified as possible for the final users. There is also a need for introducing an electronic “unified procedure”, so that this reform as well can have its E prefix and generate the same success as the construction permitting and cadaster reform before it.