Agriculture on its knees, drought causes serious damage!

(Patria) - Due to high temperatures, an orange weather alert is in effect in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Temperatures up to 41 degrees are expected.

This weather is dangerous not only for people but also for animals, and plants.

Agriculture is, once again, on its knees due to the drought. Plants that are just beginning to bear fruit are shedding them in order to save the tree. Those in the ground are rotting. On top of all this, subsidies, farmers say, were delayed again this year.

Farmers warn that there could be shortages, as well as higher prices.

"High temperatures affect everything. People, livestock, fruit, vegetables, and agricultural products. The fruit that remains, namely apples and pears, is already falling; the plant is shedding them normally, it wants to preserve itself, not to bear fruit. And we saw for ourselves that cherries and plums, because we had late frosts this year and there were no bees for pollination, did not bear fruit, and these plums that did bear fruit will just fall off quickly," Muhamed Softić, a farmer, told N1.

Water problem

Although authorities often say that farmers do not invest enough in equipment and lack irrigation, Softić says that even if they had an irrigation system, they have no water.

"The problem is water supply. Here, we struggled for years with water, with wells, until we got city water. Now at least in summer we people are secured with water, and that water is not used for watering agricultural products. And if we were to look for a well here now, we could find one, but at this time there is no water anywhere here," he added.

He points out that they used to mow grass three times at this time of year, this year only once.

"Many fields have remained unmown, so at least that first grass will be mowed and something will be used, but what we call the second, third grass, there won't be any. Look, we can already see it's dry, the ground is cracking underfoot from how hard the drought has hit, the soil has already cracked," said the agricultural producer, without any optimism.

Import lobbies

When it comes to prices, he notes that they are not dictated by them but by import lobbies.

"We do not dictate the price of agricultural products here in BiH, we are not such large producers, we account for about 20-30% of that agricultural production, and prices are dictated by the import lobby. They are the ones to target, they are responsible for all the high prices. Here, agricultural producers are fighting for survival. We see now from the weather disasters, and everything else, but we must adapt to those prices, the import prices dictated by the import lobbies," said Softić.

He emphasizes that subsidies were delayed this year.

"The fourth quarter for 2024 was only recently paid out, and these days the payment for the first quarter of 2025 is being made. Agricultural producers needed those funds in March, April, during sowing, when they were purchasing raw materials and planting stock. However, agricultural producers have no funds; they were held up with service providers, with their organizations. As soon as they receive this subsidy, they will transfer it to repay debts, and no one will deduct enough because everyone seeks their compensation for lending you the funds. So, subsidies started off poorly this year," said Softić.

The situation is also difficult in Semberija, where farmers constantly express their dissatisfaction, which has now culminated, and we are witnessing their protests these days. Three days ago, they gathered in Rača to express their dissatisfaction with the purchase price of wheat. They, as they state, actually learned about this information from the media, because the price offered to them and at which they are asked to sell is not enough to cover other costs. They emphasize that the situation is unbearable.