Veljko grew up in a farming area – as a child he was with his father and grandfather in the fields, so he fell in love with agricultural work. He always wanted to have a modern tractor, and his wish came true at the age of 23.
The Katanić family lives in Stapari near Sombor and is engaged in agriculture. In that area, the fields are fertile, and Veljko’s family plants sugar beet, wheat, corn, soybeans and sunflowers. They decided to improve their business by purchasing a new tractor, which they did with the help of the IPARD fund.
IPARD – Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance for Rural Development, is a programme of the European Union implemented in Serbia by the Directorate for Agrarian Payments. They announce calls for farmers of different profiles – producers of milk, fruits, vegetables, cereals and even those who are engaged in rural tourism.
From 2014 to 2020, the European Union provided 175 million euros in grants to Serbian farmers through the IPARD II cycle, with another 55 million euros in national co-financing. It is important to note that these funds are available to users until 2023. Veljko applied during this period, and soon domestic farmers will have the opportunity to apply for non-refundable donations through the IPARD III cycle as well, for which about 288 million euros are planned.
The Katanićes describe the process through their experience. “We have seen the call for applications on the Internet for subsidies and donations from the European Union. It is a process that is not easy, but with a little effort we managed to achieve all that,” says Veljko. (His ‘remark’ is to the point, so those who are responsible have announced that this process will be much simpler in the future.) In any case – it paid off for the Katanićes.
“We renewed a good part of our agricultural machinery, thus making work easier and faster. By increasing the amount of work, expanding and renewing mechanisation, everything was more interesting and different, so it was not difficult for me to get to love what I do.”
IPARD III Measures 1, 3, 7 and 9 will be available to our farmers within the IPARD III Programme, which will be sent for re-accreditation, and among the new ones is Measure 4 – Agro-ecological-climatic measures and measures of organic production, as well as Measure 5 – Implementation of local rural development strategies LEADER approach. Accreditation is expected for these two measures in 2022/3. Measure 6 is also planned – Investments in rural public infrastructure, which will be open in 2024/5. Among others, one of the changes is that the minimum support for measures 1, 3 and 7 will be increased to 20,000 euros.
