UNMIK ON AIR

FARMERS FACE PROBLEMS

MAY 7 2003

ZORAN CULAFIC

Hello and welcome to UNMIK on Air with Sputnik Kilambi

Spring has come to Kosovo with a vengeance. The days are longer and warmer; the earth is bursting with fertility. For many people it’s their favorite time of year. For farmers it’s one of the most important.

Farming has always been important to Kosovo. Before the war many made their living from it. These days though much of the land is barren and unused. Many of those who are still farming are Serbs living in enclaves. It’s a way of scratching out a living when there are no jobs. But the problems these farmers face are enormous. We spoke to some in the enclave of Caglavica, only a few kilometers from Pristina but a world apart.

Predrag: We do not have freedom of movement, and no free market, and people would engage themselves more in agriculture work, as well as in growing fruit and everything else, but for four years we are wandering in a magic circle, how to say, in a ghetto, not daring to go out of it. Thus the people have lost the will, the younger ones are leaving Kosovo, looking for an opportunity to get better education. Mitrovica (university) is too far for us in central Kosovo, a proper bus connection does not exist all in all, it’s a bad situation.

Vojislav: In order to buy seeds to plant we farmers have to go through two or three intermediaries. And the same with fuel, you can’t go directly, or we dare not go to the right shops. And that is a huge problem. We have neither freedom of movement, no free market nor free buying of seeds.

Toma: Talking about agriculture, there is no profit in it today, but it was left to us from our fathers and grandfathers to work on the land and not to allow to turn to weeds. I planted a hectare of wheat, a hectare of barley and 800 square meters of maize, and some animal feed. But in all that we are forced to pay twice or three times higher prices.

Vojislav: Today I have a pig being fatted up to 250 kg and maybe more, a bull maybe of some 700 kg I offer it but no-one is going to buy, they just want to lower the price. Recently there was Easter, some holidays but no-one showed up to buy. I have suckling pigs from 10 kg to 30 kg, and pigs up to 100 kg as well. But there are no buyers.

Toma: Believe me, there are households here with more than 10 tons of grain, in Caglavica, we can go there and see it and the man did not manage to sell it because of very low prices. We do not have the market to sell it. The goods are stored here and probably will spoil, but no-one wants to sell it under price and also there is no-one to buy

Vojislav: I had a farm, you see everything is stagnating and I have had a chicken farm and everything. I was involved in producing various products, vegetables, wheat, animal feed, pigs, cows, chickens, everything

Toma: In Serbia, diesel is 36 Dinars, but we are paying 60 Dinars here. And you can imagine how much it’s costing us, but still we are working on the land. And the spare parts are expensive, as well. I’m a car mechanic and I know.

Predrag: I tell you frankly, I planted one hectare of maize. I was waiting for the seed, but in the end I had to pay (higher price). I learned later that there was some maize provided by Red Cross, but it was 60 percent germinated and people did not want to risk, so they bought it.

Toma: We get some humanitarian aid, but we get flour, and our barns are full of flour, because we don’t have opportunity to sell it. These people here could have everything, this is a rich land and everyone is willing to work, to earn.

Vojislav: That minister of agriculture we didn’t meet yet, we never had any meeting with him, we have had not the chance to express what our problems, our needs are here, the needs of us, the farmers, the natives.

Toma: We have big losses here and therefore we are asking the state of Serbia, and from these provisional institutions here and from that UNMIK, if they can do something for us, to take goods and to sell them somehow but even from the Coordination center no-one showed up here till now.

Toma: We are trying to manage by ourselves and there is no alternative for us. To keep from going crazy we have to work somehow, and mainly in agriculture. It is better to go out on your land, than sit in your home or in cafés and drink and make problems.

Farmers from the Caglavica enclave talking to us about their lives. That’s all for today from UNMIK on Air.