EU and German Ministry for Economic Cooperation to invest EUR 3.78 million in Serbia's agriculture by 2016

The European Union and the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation will invest EUR 3.78 million in the improvement of the efficiency of Serbia's agriculture over the next three years, it was announced Tuesday in the municipality of Pirot.

The first municipalities to be covered by this project are Pirot, Svrljig, Knjazevac, Paracin, Negotin, Boljevac, and Zitoradja.

As it was announced, an average size of a cadastral parcel in central Serbia is 11 ares, whereas an average size of a farm is 2.5 hectares. A large number of small parcels is one of the main reasons for the low efficiency of agriculture in Serbia.

According to estimates, a total of 1.5 million hectares of land in Serbia had been merged by 2006 with about another 2 million hectares yet to be merged.

The project dubbed "Rural Development - Efficient Land Management" is being implemented by the German Organization for International Cooperation (GIZ) with the help of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Power Engineering.