In the new issue of Lider: The state is throwing huge amounts of money into channels that almost no one uses

The state has invested one billion kuna in the irrigation of 13 thousand hectares, but it does not know how much of that is actually being irrigated. Insiders estimate that it is at most 1300 hectares.

– If Croatia continues to irrigate agricultural land without first carefully considering what we will produce and which areas are a priority for building channels, we will waste that invested money!

These are the words of our interlocutor, the owner of a large agricultural company who criticized the grand Croatian plans, motivated primarily by the collection of political points, rather than by a well-thought-out plan for the development of domestic agriculture.

As part of the National Irrigation and Agricultural Land and Water Management Project in Croatia (NAPNAV), accepted in 2005 during the government of Prime Minister Sanader, one billion kuna has been invested up to the Milanović government. With these investments, irrigation of 13 thousand hectares was planned, but so far there are no official data on how much of that is actually being irrigated. According to our well-informed interlocutor, if even ten percent of the mentioned areas are being irrigated at this moment, it would be an optimistic estimate.

What decisions depend on

He says that the best example, to put it mildly, of a chaotic entry into these projects are the Gat – Veliškovci channels near Belišće, Kapinci – Vaška in the Municipality of Sopje near Slatina, and the Sinjsko polje channel. Our second interlocutor, who once worked in the Ministry of Agriculture, says that all governments, regardless of political orientation, have in common that they have not thought too much about it.

Read more on this topic in the new issue of Lider.