Agriculture suffers huge damages, experts believe in recovery after all

According to the initial information, 80,000 hectares of agricultural land are under water and tens of tons of animals are dead.

Hundred percent of early crops in Serbia is gone. Almost a fifth of the fertile soil in the Morava basin does not exist anymore, while 30,000 hectares are flooded in the Branicevo Region, where 40 tons of cattle have died. In Petrovac na Mlavi, 15,000 hectares of crops are under water. Multimillion damages are also caused to fruit growing, beekeeping and fishing, the national broadcasting corporation RTS announced.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia promises help to farmers. Speaking in figures, direct damages resulting from the loss of this year's crops can reach about half a billion euro, said Miladin Sevarlic, an agricultural economist.

What can be done

The first step in the repair of damages caused to agriculture should be to create a schedule of procedures and measures to implement, which should be done by the government bodies responsible for the recovery of that industry, and a very important role should be played by agricultural advisers, whose number in Serbia is, unfortunately, very small, Sevarlic pointed out.

- Therefore, my proposal for the Agriculture Ministry is to hire unemployed agronomists who had worked as assistant advisers on the program "Our Knowledge for Your Property" until August 2012. I believe that a large number of them would agree to provide assistance to people in flood-struck areas as volunteers - said Sevarlic.

(Miladin Sevarlic)

He stressed that there were about 150 reclamation experts among them, who could also help solve other problems occurring not only in agricultural production, but also in the overall development of rural areas.

Dead livestock

Zoran Rajic from the Agriculture Ministry says that the biggest damage was caused to vegetable crops and nursery production.

- Certain cattlemen have suffered lossed measured in hundreds of thousands of euros - said Rajic.

Serbia is lacking in boats and trucks to transport tens of tons of dead cows, pigs, sheep, poultry. Are we in danger of infections?

Agriculture Minister Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic says that a very good communication is established when it comes to activities necessary to remove corpses, clean and disinfect the land. There is a proposal to write-off loans granted to the farmers whose property is destroyed by floods.

Corn, soybean, sunflower, strawberries, raspberries destroyed the most

According to the data provided by the Crisis Staff of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (SCC) which is constantly in contact and coordinates activities with the Economy Ministry, since the state of emergency was declared, the crops that have been affected the most by the floods are corn, soybean and sunflower, and so have all vegetables and early fruits - strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. The state of wheat fields will be checked in the days to come, once the rivers return to their beds.

Part of the processing facilities and water power engineering infrastructure - canals and embankments, have also suffered a big material damage.

There will be enough food

Although floods destroyed a large number of crop fields, the supply of agricultural and food products to the market of Serbia in the following period will be stable, but we expect exports to drop, said people at the SCC.

In order not to be lacking in food, people at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce believe that activities should be focused on the purchase of fuel and the provision of crop seeds that can be resown to repair the damages in the shortest time possible.

The gross domestic product in agriculture amounts to USD 6.2 billion, and it is important that the value of damages does not exceed 10 percent of the GDP in this sector, SCC officials concluded.

Jelena Djelic