Čobanković promised assistance to farmers

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Petar Čobanković today visited corn fields in Darda and announced that efforts will be made to find additional budget funds to compensate farmers for the significant damage caused by drought.

“Efforts will be made to secure certain additional funds for the payment of damage compensation, as this could not be implemented from existing funds,” said Čobanković, noting that “the state cannot plan in advance whether there will be a natural disaster in a certain area.” It cannot be expected that compensation will be complete, but rather at a certain percentage, he said, adding that farmers can partially compensate for the damage with the prices of corn and other crops that will “be significantly higher than in normal years.”

After touring the corn fields near Darda, Čobanković stated that, based on current insights, the condition of this crop in Baranja is worse than in the Brod-Posavina and Vukovar-Srijem counties, and that the damages are also greater than in the mentioned counties. He reiterated that the Ministry has prepared a proposal for the Government’s session this week regarding the introduction of tariffs on corn exports, in order to keep corn on the Croatian market due to the reduced yield of this crop and the needs of domestic livestock farming. He added that such or similar measures have also been adopted by some countries in our region. When asked to comment on criticisms from opposition parties that this Government has not done enough to develop the irrigation system and that this is one of the main reasons for the significant damage from drought, Minister Čobanković responded that the Government has initiated this process, which had previously seen almost no work, but that this issue cannot be resolved in a short time.

“So far, we have increased from the initial seven thousand hectares to 14.5 thousand hectares of irrigated land,” said Čobanković, reminding that a national irrigation program has been established. With projects that have already begun implementation, and those still in design, irrigation for an additional 40 thousand hectares is being prepared, and this should be integrated into the irrigation system by 2010, said Čobanković. He added that nowhere in the world are basic agricultural crops irrigated, but rather more profitable crops, such as fruits and vegetables, although, given the increased demand for agricultural crops and the rise in their prices, it is not excluded that in a few years corn and wheat will also be irrigated if it becomes profitable. Along with Darda, Minister Čobanković and his associates will also visit agricultural areas near Beli Manastir and Valpovo today. (Hina)