This year, the city of Bihac will set aside 595,000 BAM in order to stimulate agricultural production, which is a record amount so far. All registered agricultural producers will have the right to apply for the allocation of these funds.
According to Kemal Hrnjic, advisor to the mayor of Bihac, 125,000 BAM have already been set aside for spring sowing in order to enable farmers to purchase fertilizers and seed material.
“The rest of the funds will be placed in the form of incentives, support for autumn sowing and subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery and raw materials,” Hrnjic said.
According to Hrnjic, in the past year in the area of Bihac, agricultural cultivation covered 335 hectares, and the goal is to significantly increase those areas this year.
“Due to the current situation in the world and possible problems related to food procurement, it will be necessary to sow as many hectares as possible. That is why we decided to provide additional support to our farmers“, Hrnjic pointed out.
Also, this year the Government of the Una-Sana Canton will invest more funds in agriculture than before, so it will allocate a total of seven million BAM from the cantonal budget for the agricultural sector.
“When we planned these budget funds, it seemed like a significant step forward, but as time passes, prices are rising due to world events, so this will be a very difficult year,” Kulenovic said.
According to Kulenovic, it is important that farmers receive the planned funds as soon as possible, so that inflation does not damage their production even further, because the prices of energy and agricultural raw materials are constantly and unstoppably rising.
“We will provide one million BAM immediately to compensate the damage that the farmers had last year, and then we will immediately provide other payments as well. We are a bit limited here, because we have to wait for the FBiH Government to adopt its program of incentive measures, which we must not overlap with, and this is a problem for us because it is delayed at the federal level. We will try to pay everything as soon as possible“, said Kulenovic.
Kulenovic invited all citizens who are able to work in agriculture to start with food production.
