Serbia: Farmers’ associations are dissatisfied with the way in which the eAgrar system is implemented

Association “Pančevački Ratari”, Association “Agrarian Forum” from that city and Association “Civil Disobedience” Dolovo, announced today that the way in which the newly introduced eAgrar system is implemented is a complete failure and a fiasco of state authorities, which is why they fear that this year farmers remain without state subsidies.

“The introduction of eAgrar for the treasury, as of March 16, and at the same time the abolition of the work of the Treasury Administration, which previously did all the work for the registration of agricultural holdings, the renewal of registrations and the entire work related to the payment of state subsidies, in the season of spring works and spring sowing, complete is a failure and fiasco of the state authorities. 

Due to the unpreparedness and lack of promptness of the competent authorities, this year’s spring sowing is an almost impossible mission,” said those associations.

They also assessed that eAgrar is implemented by “people who are unprofessional and unprepared for this huge revolutionary work”, with the cadastre unprepared to communicate with them, which leads to the complete confusion of advisors, and especially farmers, “who are totally uninformed and completely confused”.

“Many believe that the state is doing this on purpose to deal with farmers and reduce their chances of survival and throw them into a passive status – which completely prevents the legal use of state incentives, no matter how small the incentives are and compared to European farmers, especially if we know that the borders towards the EU members are completely open,” the announcement stated.

It was also pointed out that the farmers are “multiple stressed”, firstly by the procurement of sowing and other reproduction material that was collected primarily for medium and small agricultural farms, while at the same time, large producers managed to reduce sowing costs by up to 30 percent with a large procurement.

It is added that the price of quality seeds has increased by 30 to 40 percent, and complete chemistry, herbicides and pesticides by 20 to 30 percent.

They also reminded that the current price of Euro diesel for agriculture is higher and that it changes every Friday, and that the only artificial fertilizer did not increase in price this year, because it increased in price by 300 percent last year (UREA).

Because of all this, as they pointed out, this year’s spring sowing will be the most expensive so far, perhaps up to 30 percent of last year’s expensive sowing, while at the same time the prices of cereals have fallen by 40 percent.

They remind that EU members receive state incentives from 300 to 600 euros per head and hectare, which is seven to ten times more than farmers in Serbia.

As an example, as it is difficult for farmers to use subsidies per hectare, it was stated that since 2004, when the register of agricultural holdings was introduced, everyone could register their plots with a decision from the cadastre and became eligible for state incentives, while from March 16 this year, none of the Treasury Administration documents are valid anymore.

“Even for those who have submitted a production plan since the beginning of the deadline for the renewal of farms this year, which was received and certified at the counter and thus acquired the condition that they receive a certificate of active status – eAgrar does not respect those documents. 

At the same time, they are not capable of carrying out correspondence, i.e. electronic communication with the cadastre, which marked NO, prevented the renewal of the registration of plots that could use subsidies since 2004. These plots are mainly owned by the beneficiaries of the incentives,” the three farmers’ associations stated.

They pointed out that the physical proof of existence and the ID card with a chip were not enough to NOT convert it into a DA, because the authorities did not enter the unique identity number of citizens.

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