Various associations of agricultural producers in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have requested that a ‘natural disaster due to drought’ be declared at the state level. Farmers claim that the damage to yields due to the drought is more than 50 percent and that neither entity nor state institutions are doing enough to suppress the damage, which is why autumn sowing is questionable.

Djuro Kopacevic, the president of the Association “Zito” from Odzak in the Posavina Canton, is wondering how growers are supposed to cope with all the problems, including the drought, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Kopacevic added that it is not enough to simply declare a natural disaster but to compensate for the damage before autumn sowing.

Nedzad Bico, president of the FBiH Farmers’ Association, told “Avaz” that the situation is catastrophic: “We had a meeting where we sent a request to the Council of Ministers to declare a state of natural disaster so that people could receive some compensation and so that they could do autumn sowing. Damage from the drought is catastrophic, corn, silage, everything suffered 70 percent. It won’t be there at all. The same for other crops, fruits, vegetables, reduced yield, lower quality. The damage is too great.”

Source - https://www.freshplaza.com