FACE | Agromedia

Instead of Đurđevdanska, which has immeasurable importance for agriculture and those who deal with it, we welcomed another rain. The rain of tears that the entire nation shed, and still does for a large part, because of two serious tragedies in which 17 students and more than 20 students and young people were injured.

On the 3rd of May, in the morning hours at the “Vladislav Ribnikar” Elementary School in the Belgrade municipality of Vračar, a thirteen-year-old student of that school killed eight students and a security guard with his father’s firearm. Just one day later, new shots rang out in the villages of Dubona and Malo Orašje in the municipalities of Mladenovac and Smederevo, in which eight young people were killed and 14 more seriously and lightly wounded.

The motives for which Kosta K. (13) shot his school friends as well as Uroš B. (21) his neighbors in the villages of Duboni and Mali Orašje are still being determined. They are not only important for the prosecution and the court, but for the whole society. and his institutions, in order to see if there are “their” prints in these tragedies?! These are children who shot their peers?!

Bad breath, for a long time, is felt and comes from those places where everything should be perfect. We all know that. And we pretend to be inept until tragedies happen to us. And then, instead of speaking in silence, we continue to name-call, accuse, assume and even insult even louder and more disconnectedly. There is no doubt, for more than three decades, almost all of us have become hostages of daily political leeks and other filth that we uncontrollably spill in the public space. Exactly, where children grow up, learn and adopt behavioral models…

THE VILLAGE AGAIN

Without any reason to separate the victims, the native village once again did not avoid accidents and inconveniences. Three years ago, in the village of Jabukovec near Negotin, four people were killed in the area of ​​the family farm of farmer Raja Kazimirović, also with a firearm found in the hands of a young man, Davor Pernić. Davor Pernić was sentenced to 40 years in prison and Maja Bađikić, as a co-perpetrator, to 35 years in prison for this serious crime. The motive was self-interest.

However, in the middle of February of this year, the Court of Appeal from Nis canceled the verdict and referred it for reconsideration, as stated: due to a significant violation of the provisions of the criminal procedure and the incompletely established factual situation in relation to the accused Maja Bađikić. With this event, I wanted to remind, without mentioning any other cases, that even the Serbian countryside is not spared from the challenges of violence, robberies and brutal murders of several people.

IT MUST GO ON

When on one side there is sky-high sadness and on the other side problems that are suffocating local farmers, that is, food producers, it is certainly difficult to find a line of understanding and full support. However, life has shown countless times that his graphics are unstoppable and often incomprehensible. It confuses, angers and rushes without stopping towards some “higher” goal of its own. Whether we are angry or not, the director of life does not accept compromises and anyone’s influence. Whoever does not adapt to him and try to understand his philosophy can hardly avoid problems of all kinds, shapes and severity.

With, as they repeatedly emphasized, full understanding of the sadness and pain due to the tragic events at the “Ribnikar” school and the villages near Mladenovac and Smederevo, representatives of several associations of farmers from the dairy cattle sector, but also from other areas, announced their arrival in front of the Presidency building on May 12 in Belgrade. They judged that from that place their voices and cries could be heard far away, but also better see in depth all the problems that have been bothering them for a long time and stopping them in all their ambitions.

Domestic milk producers have an extremely complex and at times dramatic situation. They say that they find themselves in a “scissors” between milkmen, traders and importers. The measures taken by the state with the introduction of levies, as well as the inability to control the behavior of domestic and foreign dairy farmers, and with all that, the minimal and irregular subsidies, literally led them to think of redirecting their cooperation, instead of with dairy farms, towards slaughterhouses, and thus putting padlocks on farms.

CONTINUED SPILL

Due to the partial or complete suspension of milk purchase, dozens of producers are spilling more than 15 tons of raw milk into the sewers every day. This information alone should “turn on” all the red lights in the relevant Ministry and its departments, but there is still nothing.

Zoran Milićević, president of the Assembly of Agricultural Producers of Serbia (SPAS), says that farmers cannot postpone the accumulated problems any longer. The situation is unbearable and if something is not done urgently, the village will become the largest nursing home in the country. Our key demand is to increase the allocations from the budget for agriculture from five to eight percent and adopt strategic measures for Serbian agriculture”.

Milk producers sent a request to the addresses of the Government of Serbia and the Ministry of Agriculture that the lowest purchase price of milk including VAT be 78 dinars per liter and that milk premiums be paid in the amount of 20 dinars. Requests were also added that the subsidy for dairy cows should be 40,000 dinars per head, that is, subsidies per hectare should be increased to 35,000 dinars.

At the same time, they reminded that subsidies per hectare in European Union countries range from 600 to 800 euros, while our farmers receive ten times less, ie 80 euros. Such a thing is difficult to understand considering the fact that we are literally surrounded by these countries and that we are in constant market competition and competition with them. Who is handicapped in such a situation and until when will they be able to engage in serious production is a question whose answers should not be delayed even three days, let alone three decades?!

TROJAN AND OTHER HORSES

In the meantime, while the announcements for the protest gathering in front of the Presidency building continued on May 8, representatives of several associations and organizations of farmers spoke with the Prime Minister of the Government of Serbia, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Agriculture. In a short announcement from that meeting, it was possible to hear where the representatives of the state expressed their understanding towards the farmers and their readiness to help them and support their demands. To what extent this will be will depend on the analyzes and consultations that follow. A new meeting will be held in the next week.

Appreciating that this postponed the protest in front of the house where the president of the country dines, I called Milija Palamarević, the representative of Serbian milk producers from Knić, who told me that there is no postponing the protest, because the situation in the dairy industry is literally dramatic. I asked him who the producers are spoke with the prime minister and her associates, to which he briefly replied – that they are their “associates” to alleviate all burning problems and excessive anger and resentment with the so-called “buying” of time until something calms down or is put in order by itself?!

As far as I understand, it is a kind of “Trojan” horse, which instead of getting the problem out of the way, led to division even among those who need it the least. It would have been fairer if they had re-formed the Peasants’ Party and then used the vocabulary and tricks of politicians to solve problems in domestic agriculture. For a long time?!

When farmers say that during this year’s spring sowing, they used artificial fertilizer as a housewives spice, or that due to the too expensive sowing, it is better to “rest” the land than to mistreat their feelings and common sense, it is clear that they are driven to make such statements by nausea. It is no less difficult for them, if not more difficult, that they come to the capital while it is still shrouded in sorrow and pain. But everyone’s pain is the hardest – says a popular saying. And that should be understood!!!