The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of Serbia, in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN FAO), has started implementing a joint project to develop a national Irrigation Strategy and a five-year Action Plan and Investment Plan.
The main goal of the project is to improve agricultural production by increasing irrigation capacity, identifying and mapping priority investments in the next ten years.
Serbia is one of the leading agricultural producers and exporters of cereals and oilseeds in the region, however, climate change and increasingly frequent droughts have an extremely negative impact on yields and incomes, given that less than two percent of arable land is currently irrigated in our country. Rehabilitation and modernization of irrigation systems in Serbia will strengthen the sector’s resistance to extreme climatic conditions and diversify agricultural production, because irrigation will enable the cultivation of crops with higher added value, but also increase the yield of existing ones.
The first meeting of the working group, consisting of representatives of all relevant stakeholders, for the development of the Irrigation Strategy was held today. The director of the Republic Directorate for Waters of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Natasa Milic, stated on this occasion: “We are extremely glad that the drafting of the Irrigation Strategy of Serbia is starting. In the next two years, we will identify concrete investment priorities, which will increase agricultural productivity, sustainable production with environmental protection and resilience to climate change through improved existing and the development of a new irrigation network.“
iljan Zdrale, EBRD Regional Director for Agribusiness for Central and Southeast Europe, said: “With this project we want to enable the involvement and participation of all relevant institutions, government agencies, scientific institutes, the private sector, farmers and their organizations in solving one of the biggest challenges. Agriculture of Serbia – strategic improvement and modernization of the irrigation system, based on the collection and analysis of relevant data.”
According to Emanuel Hidier, FAO Senior Economist at the helm of this project, FAO has extensive global experience and expertise in agricultural water management and the development of irrigation investment plans, so it will be able to provide adequate technical assistance in the development and implementation of the Strategy and Action Plan.
“We focus on innovative solutions and technologies, the so-called A ‘climate-smart’ approach to irrigation and capacity development,” concludes Hidier.
The project is financed through the EBRD by the Government of Israel and the Central European Initiative based in Italy.
The EBRD and FAO have been cooperating with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management in the field of strategic investments in irrigation systems since 2018. FAO participated in a joint assessment of irrigation priorities, which helped define the scope of the EBRD’s first 15 million loans approved to strengthen the irrigation system in December last year, Novi Magazin reports.
