The Government of the Republic of Srpska adopted today during its 59th working-consultation session the set of measures for mitigating the impacts of drought on agricultural production proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the Republic of Srpska. To that end the Ministry shall provide 5 million marks for co-financing of the procurement of the irrigation system and additional 5 million for covering 40% of the fixed return of funds in relation to the investments costs for purchase of the irrigation equipment.
The new agricultural production cycle shall be asissted with five million that would be primarily used for co-financing of the diesel fuel and the fertilizers. The former measure shall be realized so that the amount of co-financed diesel fuel shall be increased for 20 percent, i.e. from 100 to 120 liters per hectare of agricultural land and purchase of co-financed fertilizers would be also financed (150 kilos per hectare).
2,625,200 liters of diesel fuel and 19,689,000 kilo of fertilizers shall be provided for these two measures and according to the records of the Ministry of Agriculture those measures would encompass 25,670 agricultural households which have active status in the Registry of agricultural households.
Furthermore, tenants and concessionaries of agricultural land owned by Republic of Srpska shall have the right to a 50 percent return of the amount paid for tenant fees and concession fees for 2018.
This measure shall apply to 361 users and overall reduction of expenses for them would total BAM 788,989.
The measures would also include financing of the costs of increased testing of samples of fresh milk and food for animals for mycotoxins.
Investment-Development Bank of the Republic of Srpska shall be tasked to consider the possibility of restructuring loans and extension of the grace period for agricultural entities and food industry which are direct users of IRB funds so that the Government suggested to commercial banks to revise loans in agricultural sector bearing in mind difficult season.
An initiative for reducing the price of connecting the irrigation equipment to electric-distribution network and the price of electricity used for irrigation has been considered.
It has been proposed to introduce the new measure of incentives for construction of winter mini-accumulation in the valleys for areas without waterways and with low level of underground waters and to increase the insurance coverage in the sector of agriculture.
The Government noted today that all commitments for incentives in 2016 have been settled and that 24 million have been paid for the current year and the remaining funds would be paid in future making the RS Government agrarian budget for the ongoing year already close to its 50% execution.
source: Vlada RS
