Petar Nikolić, founder of the Youth Agro-Entrepreneurship Network (MMA) in Republika Srpska, stated in an interview with Srna that the campaign “Village of Republika Srpska – my place for life” has been launched in Obudovac. This campaign aims to integrate support for rural areas, agriculture, and pro-natal policies in Republika Srpska as part of a unified process.
Nikolić emphasized that MMA was created as a result of a project conducted at the Faculty of Agriculture in Banja Luka and was founded by energetic young people, agricultural producers, students, and agronomists. He added that the team is continuously growing, with the Network now consisting of nearly 300 members across Republika Srpska.
“I hope that by the end of the year, MMA will become the largest and most influential association of agricultural producers in the Republic, seriously influencing agricultural policy-making to provide better and more efficient support to young people. We ran the campaign ‘Youth in Agriculture’ from March to June, organized workshops and consultations across Republika Srpska, and the first Youth Conference on Agriculture was the pinnacle of everything we started and accomplished this year,” Nikolić said.
According to him, the Conference provided a valuable opportunity for networking, education, and promoting current topics like precision and regenerative agriculture. However, the event itself was not the goal, but rather a means to demonstrate what young people committed to developing rural areas and agriculture want and need.
“Through the Conference, we set a new organizational standard and showcased our capabilities. We hosted over 250 participants, guests, and lecturers from all over Republika Srpska, Serbia, Italy, and Spain. Bringing them to Obudovac was a major task. Due to a lack of accommodation, we housed all the guests in eight different hotels and motels from Šamac to Pelagićevo, organized bus lines, fairs, exhibitions, concerts, panel discussions, workshops for children—all of this over three days. Only highly motivated and capable people could manage such an endeavor. In any case, we drew attention to ourselves, young people, and the hosts who work and build their villages and families,” Nikolić emphasized.
He announced that soon the conclusions of the Conference would be released, including initiatives such as the formation of a working group for youth issues within the Ministry of Agriculture, the initiation of new and improvement of existing incentive measures, including support for building social infrastructure in villages like kindergartens and youth centers, the issue of free and available arable land for young people, and support in the form of initial capital for the registration of farms and the start of production.
Nikolić mentioned that the first result of advocating for young people in agriculture is the subsidized purchase of Belarus tractors, available exclusively to those under 40, with about 200 of these machines available.
He pointed out that the tractors will be subsidized by 60% of the purchase price, with 60% of the VAT covered by the Government of Republika Srpska, a measure agreed upon by the Network with the Minister of Agriculture, Savo Minić, and President Milorad Dodik, for which he expressed sincere gratitude.
Nikolić expects a public call for the Belarus tractors, already in Republika Srpska, to be announced soon.
He added that within the project “Village of Republika Srpska – my place for life,” this is just the first in a series of measures they plan to launch in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture.
“We already have new ideas ready, focusing on the development of young and small producers. The basic idea is that support for rural areas, agriculture, and pro-natal rejuvenation is a unified process, and all new measures will be created to recognize family status and the number of children in a family, in addition to the development level of agricultural farms,” Nikolić concluded.
Sourc: RTRS
