Novi Pazar

The sitting was opened by Committee Chairman Marijan Risticevic, and the participants were greeted by Assistant Mayor of Novi Pazar Nihad Hasanovic. The sitting was also attended by Minister of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Prof. Dr Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic who announced that the Ministry would be establishing closer ties with agricultural producers to jointly decide how best to use the IPA funds. Responding to the Committee members’ questions, the Minister presented the measures designed to protect domestic agricultural production, chiefly measures aimed at protecting the domestic dairy product market. Among other things, she urged the dairy farmers to win better placement on foreign markets.
Secretary of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce Association for Agriculture Nenad Budimirovic spoke of the prospects for organic production in Serbia. He said that, thanks to land fragmentation, Serbia has excellent conditions for organic food production, but these potentials are underutilized.
Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection said that the Ministry had recognised the potential of organic production and employed suitable measures to ensure its development. They also pointed out the importance of developing organic livestock farming in future.
Committee member Sabina Dazdarevic opined that the Sandzak region has developmental potential for agricultural production, while Committee member Miodrag Nikolic said that Serbia’s developmental chances lie not in export but in the processing of raw materials.
The participants of the sitting, among them representatives of the region’s agricultural producers, discussed the potentials for raising the competitiveness of the country’s most important economic branch and suggested activities aimed at boosting farm productivity. The farmers also proposed measures for the improvement of artificial insemination of livestock and training for the job, discussed land lease and the need to set up agricultural cooperatives.
The Committee went on to discuss the information on the development of small and medium-sized agricultural homesteads, fruit and vegetable farming and the information on the measures and planned activities for the protection of villages from dying out and disappearing.
The Committee members had questions about the drafting of the rulebook on small homesteads, specialisation of agricultural production and its protection in line with the SAA. The Committee members stressed that the question of agriculture has become a question of demographics and appealed that the new agricultural policy enable the return of population from the urban to rural areas and protect villages from disappearing and the overall security of the land.
At the end of the sitting, the Committee adopted several conclusions on all three items on its agenda.
The sitting outside of the National Assembly headquarters was organised with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), via project Strengthening the Oversight Role and Transparency of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. The project is jointly conducted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and UNDP.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Marijan Risticevic.