Senad Mahmutovic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, said that the report for the first quarter of 2018 is exhaustive and detailed and covers all of the Ministry’s activities in said period. What the Ministry found really useful were the Committee’s thematic sittings from the end of 2017 and beginning 2018 as they focused on Ministry’s activity plan, said Mahmutovic. He mentioned that the first quarter of the year was marked by work on rulebooks and directives i.e. chiefly normative activities, the most important of which being the Directive on allocations and stimulation packages for agriculture and rural development. Mahmutovic expects the Ministry would be able to, in the report on the second quarter, present to the Committee the Report on the Status of Agriculture in 2017 i.e. the so-called green book, which would give a general overview of agriculture in Serbia.

In the ensuing debate the Committee members exchanged views with the representatives of the Ministry and a number of administrations about the rulebooks and directives passed in the reporting period, especially the Rulebook limiting the number of breeding stock which was put out of force, about veterinary inspection and its work in the field, the usage of forests and new forestation on the territory of AP Vojvodina, projects funded by IPARD, lease of agricultural land which should come under more control by the state, incentives for small agricultural producers in Serbia and prevention of their relocation from rural areas, irrigation fees, plant production, payment of agricultural subsidies, etc.

Following the debate the Committee members accepted the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Activity Information for the first quarter of 2018 by majority vote.

The Committee members were then briefed on the Sustainable Development Goals by Dr Milorad Mijatovic. On the behalf of the National Assembly’s Focus Group for the Development of Control Mechanisms for the Process of Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, MP Nada Lazic spoke about the sustainable development goals in the sphere of agriculture.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Marijan Risticevic.

The sitting was attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Tijana Davidovac, Mladen Lukic, Milija Miletic, Dragan Savkic, Zvonimir Djokic, Nada Lazic, Ognjen Pantovic, Zarko Bogatinovic, Vladimir Djokic, Milorad Mircic, Arpad Fremond and Marjana Maras.