BFC. Agriculture Finance Bulletin.
State Initiatives 1)
Serbia suspends vaccination against African swine flu
December 17th, 2019, http://www.politika.rs/scc/clanak/444194/Srbija-prekinula-vakcinaciju-protiv-klasicne-kuge-svinja
As of December 15, vaccination against African swine flu, which has been required for the last fifteen years, has been suspended as data and monitoring efforts have shown that the disease is no longer a risk in the country. This is an important step for pork producers wanting to export products to the European Union (EU), although controls must still be carried out before the country can be officially declared as free from the disease. The last reported case of African swine flu in Serbia was in 2010.
2)
RSD 28.5 billion in subsidies paid out to farmers so far this year
December 17th, 2019, http://www.rtv.rs/sr_ci/ekonomija/aktuelno/ove-godine
The Ministry of Agriculture has processed 428,787 requests for subsidy payments from farmers this year, amounting to RSD 28.5 billion in payments. It is important to note that more applications are still being processed, meaning that these figures are likely to go up before the end of the year. The number of requested received this year is up approximately 20% over last year, meaning that efforts to improve processing speed and efficiency are necessary to ensure the Agrarian Payments Directorate can process all requests in a reasonable timeframe. To that end, the Directorate has already taken measures this year, resulting in a 60% faster application-to-decision time this year.
3)
Record year for the leasing of state-owned agricultural land
December 13th, 2019, http://www.agronews.rs/rekordan-zakup-drzavnog-poljoprivrednog-zemljista/
According to preliminary data from the Agricultural Land Administration, this has been a record year for the leasing of state-owned agricultural land, with more leases expected to be recorded in the near future. For example, leases in Knic have been recorded this year on 14,787 hectares (as compared to only 6,275 hectares last year), and Pozega leases cover 51,189 hectares (as compared to no leases last year). The record leased areas are largely due to a detailed inventory and recording of state-owned agricultural land within a new, state-of-the-art geographic-information system implemented by the Agricultural Land Administration. The increase in farmers' interest was also due to the fact that the Agricultural Land Administration offers ten-year lease periods, allowing farmers to have certainty and be able to adequately plan their agricultural production in the long run.
4)
Digitized land consolidation to improve living conditions in rural areas
December 11th, 2019, http://www.rtv.rs/sr_ci/drustvo/digitalnom-komasacijom-do-boljih-uslova-zivota-na-selu_1075083.html
Agriculture Minister Branislav Nedimovic has formed a working group that, through digitized land consolidation, will improve living and working conditions in the rural areas. The working group, which is composed of representatives of the Agricultural Land Administration and the Republic Geodetic Authority, has been tasked with drafting a new land consolidation law that will leverage digital workflows, new IT solutions, procedures that rely on the latest technology and principles of efficiency and transparency, all with an eye toward more efficient use of agricultural land, increased food production and improved land management. The new law will also regulate property-legal relations, improve environmental protection and regulate construction in rural areas.
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