Here is why agricultural associations established a headquarters for the defense of villages

The associations want to actively engage in solving all pressing issues in agriculture and have requested a meeting with Minister of Agriculture Davor Romić within 14 days.

The Association of Agricultural Producers “Barańska brazda” and the Community of Agricultural Producers Associations of Croatia established a headquarters for the defense of villages and rural development on Friday in Osijek, as they believe that this Government, after three months in office, “is doing nothing for agriculture and behaves like a shaken boxer.”

The associations want to actively engage in solving all pressing issues in agriculture and have requested a meeting with Minister of Agriculture Davor Romić within 14 days.

The president of “Barańska brazda” Petar Pranjić stated to reporters that they are asking the Government and the Ministry of Agriculture to halt the distribution of state agricultural land until a strategy and rural development plans are adopted, in which they also wish to participate. He claims that the majority of funds from EU funds and large areas of land are received by large agricultural systems at the expense of small producers.

The president of the Independent Croatian Farmers Association (NHS) Mato Mlinarić said that the minister, like his predecessors, wants to implement rural development measures in such a way that more than half of the funds go to large producers, which is unacceptable for small farmers.

– Minister Romić is visiting counties, but he does not meet with farmers. We call on him to include farmers in his committees, to talk to agricultural producers, family farms, the Croatian Agricultural Chamber, and associations to hear their opinions, emphasized Mlinarić.

The president of the Central Croatia Producers Association Stjepan Kunovec said that Minister Romić announced that the agricultural development strategy would be completed by the end of the year. He emphasized that the current government, with the HDZ at the helm before the elections, while in opposition, claimed to have ready strategies and solutions for agriculture, which now proves to be untrustworthy.

– Without a strategy, no law regulating relations in agriculture should have been adopted because the laws that were passed during the terms of previous ministries were influenced by the lobbies of privileged monopolists and large capital precisely because there was no strategy, stated Kunovec.