Making an impact – supporting young farmers

YPARD Serbia participated at the event “together for the better support for young farmers” on 18th December in Belgrade, Serbia and got a chance to ask questions and interact face to face with relevant government institutions.

First of all, this event that YPARD Serbia’s partner Divac Foundation organized, was pretty much the first one that was dedicated to help tackle young farmer’s problems in Serbia.

Serbia, for the first time in 2017, had subsides for young farmers. Response to this kind of subsidies rises and young farmers are mostly interested in livestock breeding, which is great news since Serbia’s number of livestock falls more and more each year.

There is also quite an interest in organic beekeeping. Since Serbian villages every day get emptier, local governments start to show interest for young people in agriculture and how to promote living in village and farm produce. At this event, participation had very good examples of young people associated to creating a better life in their villages and also got a chance to ask questions and give their proposals on how to make young farmers position better and give them wider support. Here are some points:

• Better communication between the ministry of agriculture, entrepreneurs and agricultural high schools
• Opening the offices for young farmers so they can be informed about every step in their production
• Making the approach to market easier

As YPARD Serbia representative, I have asked the amenable Ministry of agriculture when and will there be any programs or subsidies that will help young farmers to make selling their products easier? We got the answer that there is a place for that idea, but not until 2020. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed by the next answer from the secretary of Chamber of commerce and industry of Serbia, that ‘young and small farmers should stay on their current level of selling and that there is no use of representing them on international fairies’. YPARD Serbia and young Serbian farmers hope that not everybody from government institution has the same opinion and the same mindset.

This meeting that gathered all important associations, firms and institutions opened a space for YPARD Serbia in many ways. First of all, YPARD Serbia this time really got viewed and known to others. Participating in this kind of events became the best promotion of YPARD and its cause. Because of that, one more website (agronews.rs) about agriculture will forward our text about young farmers and YPARD Serbia’s activities. Second, YPARD Serbia made contact with an association of young activists and hope that this will be the first step to making one more partnership.

We will continue our mission in participating in this kind of events, asking questions, promoting our activities and agriculture, making partnerships and everything else so one day, not far away, agriculture would be the most attractive job in Serbia!

Picture credits: Divac Foundation