"Agriculture has to be one of the cornerstones of the development of Croatia's economy"
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Osijek, 11th of December 2013 – Parliamentary representatives Petar Baranović and Ivica Mandić have held a press conference in Osijek on the subject “Problems of Croatia's agriculture and its perspective“, and stated that new ideas and new ways of organising need to be turned to, as well as take our cue from developed agricultural countries of the EU and build healthy foundations of a quality agriculture production on their examples.
The press conference was opened by Stjepan Čuraj, president of CPP's osječko-baranjska CO.
“The role of the parliamentary Committee for agriculture is to be the first filter in bringing about new legislative regulations. The state in agriculture is very bad for a number of years, and from the post-war period until today, agricultural policy hasn't found the right answers as to how and in what way to reform the sector in order for it to adapt to new challenges and work conditions. The situation will need to be changed, and CPP will in its long-term party program, which is being created, give agriculture an important place. This begs the question of how we should get out of this situation? We need to start telling the truth to the people and it needs to be explained to them how and in which way their colleagues from EU countries participate in production, finishing and sale of agricultural products, and how and in which way it is possible and impossible to work. When you put matters on a healthy foundation and tell people the truth, you've given them the opportunity to succeed in what they're doing, or to understand and move in a different direction. In the area of agriculture there is a need to turn to new ideas and a new way of organising“, said Baranović.
Mandić took his cue from Baranović and said that it is certain that agricultural production, along with fishing one of the basic productions in Croatia and highlighted that agriculture hasn't found its rightful place in this region.
“In this region there are potentials which should be used and if we turn to the policy which Croatia has led twenty years ago we can say that the way of investing into production through incentives hasn't given the expected results. Croatia still has agricultural production which is transitional and which hasn't reached a level of competitiveness in regards to its price“, highlighted Mandić.
As Mandić said, CPP thinks that agriculture cannot be experienced and looked upon as a kind of social welfare. Agriculture is organised agricultural production which must be one of the cornerstones of development of Croatia's economy. It is important to note, what CPP has pointed at that the structure of production and producers isn't good. If we look at the age structure, we see that only 7% of family farms are below the age of 40. If we look at the qualification structure, then the largest number of farmers don't even have an eight-year education.
“One of the ways of competitiveness is to fix the way of training and the way of introducing more knowledge and more expertise. These are things on which Croatia has to work, and CPP thinks that with carrying out common agricultural policies of Croatia relating to the EU, we must stimulate the segment which relates to young family farms in special ways. Young farms are of a much higher quality and competitiveness for accepting new knowledge, and part of the revelations which developed agricultural countries of the EU have and their experiences must be transferred into Croatia. That is a priority“, highlighted Mandić.
In the continuation he mentioned the examples of Ireland, Denmark, New Zealand and Israel in the context of building a healthy basic agricultural production and said that Croatia in this parliamentary mandate brought about several new laws which maximally benefit agriculture. This relates to the question of legalising objects which is one of the foundations of agricultural production and a basis on which funds could be returned, as well as a new law of land. The funds invested by Croatia as capital investments into agriculture, as Mandić said, weren't used with quality, there was no control being carried out and what has happened is that many permanent crops raised with the help of Croatia was neglected, and Croatia lost a large sum of money.
“Croatia must be more competitive and have more quality, and entering the EU, we have entered a large market. Croatia's advantages are putting into production certain indigenous products, and we must offer our specialities on the EU market. CPP thinks that Croatia has a large opportunity and that with measures from craft training and measures related to agricultural production we must be able to reach competitiveness. It is by that that Croatia and its family farms will be competitive like 150 years ago“, concluded Mandić.
Our team of parliamentary representatives later went on. Baranović and Mandić visited Jagodnjak, Petlovac and Beli Manastir where they talked to Municipality Heads Balaban and Dominić, as well as the deputy Mayor of Beli Manastir Kranjčec. They were also hosted on radio stations in Beli Manastir and Đakovo, and held a public discussion in the evening in Đakovo titled “Croatia's agriculture – yesterday, today, tomorrow“.
The basic messages of the public discussion were: the key problem is that Croatia's farmer doesn't hold his own destiny in his own hands, and for as long as farmers don't fight for the managing of their products, the sale of them, the normal circulation of the market, wholesalers in Croatia, created by the policy of privatisation, will never take pity upon their fate. Second: for as long as farmers don't take their fate into their own hands, don't take their cue from their colleagues in other countries, there won't be happiness. The state is obliged to give support, both through the work of the advisory service and through certain financial programs.
The whole-day activities were carried out as part of the Academy's 2nd Department for additional education in general politics in cooperation with CPP's osječko-baranjska CO.