At the third sitting held on 30 September, the Agriculture Committee considered the Information of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Management on the harvest of autumn field crops and the Information on the preparations for the sowing of wheat and other winter cultures.

The sitting was chaired by the Committee Chairman Zoran Masic, and was attended by the Minister of Agriculture Sasa Dragin and the Assistant Minister for Agrarian Policy Milos Milovanovic.

Following the discussion on the Information submitted to the Committee by the Ministry, the Committee members unanimously elected deputy Sinisa Stamenkovic of the PUPS Deputy Group as Committee Deputy Chairman.

The Information on the harvest of autumn field crops and preparations for this year’s sowing of wheat and other winter cultures were presented to the Committee members by Minister Sasa Dragin. He stated that this year was characterised by favourable climatic conditions, so that an average yield of about 4.5 t/ha of corn; 2.3 t/ha of sunflower; 2.4 t/ha soy beans and 4.9 t/ha of sugar beet can be expected. Considering the sowing, this year the situation is more difficult than before due to the high price of gas and fertilizer. That is why the Ministry has secured a reimbursable purchase of 50 000 tons of fertilizer intended for individual agricultural producers. This year, the Ministry expects sewing on an area of about 683 000 ha.

In the joint discussion, responding to the Committee members’ questions, Minister Dragin stated that next year’s priority in the agrarian budget will be more considerable means for subsidizing the irrigation system and an agrarian budget of about 35 billion dinars.

After the discussion had been completed, the Committee members adopted the Information of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Management on the harvest and on the preparations for the sowing of wheat and other winter cultures by a majority of votes.