Targeting agricolturtural and rural development measures: competitiveness, market orientation and social role of agriculture in the rural areas of Republika Srpska

Out of historical, geographical and economical reasons, land represents a crucial resource for the Western Balkans. Agriculture and rural development play a key role and are necessary basis in the promotion of economic development and social stability. Moreover they represent key challenges on the way of the integration process of the region in the European Community. Because of the very complex administrative organization created with the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, Bosnia Herzegovina (BiH) presents one of the most challenging situations in the region. Agricultural and rural areas have particularly suffered because of this administrative complexity and have been often “forgotten” by policies and policy makers. The same complexity has lead to an extremely controversial policy environment that has been strongly characterized by the lack of a long-term perspective and by a non harmonized regulatory framework in which single municipalities have promoted individual development strategies. The determination of clear policy objectives and the endorsement of a long term coherent and shared agricultural and rural development policy have been affected also by structural problems as the lack of reliable information on population, the absence of an adequate land registry system, the absence of a reliable cadastre and of other relevant data. Moreover BiH agricultural sector is characterized by many factors that have typically affected transition countries as land fragmentation, lack of agricultural mechanization and outdated production technologies, farm size, ageing and depopulation of rural areas, low farm incomes and a high rate of unemployment in rural areas. The present work is aimed to investigate the situation of the agricultural and rural sector of Republic of Srpska (RS) with a particular focus on resource flows to agricultural and rural development. Moreover the research would analyse how subsidies are targeted and how accessible they are for farmers. The most recently developed and adopted national strategies for agricultural and rural development will be taken into consideration as well as the main challenges in the harmonisation of regulations and policies. The first part of the work would consider the main actors and tools, that characterize the policy environment of the agricultural sector of the Entity. Moreover the main burdens, constraints and challenges that drive the transformation and the development of agriculture and rural areas will be taken under consideration. This part of the work will be mostly based on the examination of existing literature, official documents and reports and on the analysis of statistical data, however, some interviews with policy makers and key informants will be conducted to partially overcome the scarcity of data and the complexity of the environment. The second part of the work will be aimed on the one hand to identify the main characteristics and differences of agricultural and rural systems on a regional basis and on the other hand to understand if subsidies are well targeted and how farmers access to subventions is ensured and encouraged. This part of the work will be based on a survey conducted at the farm level in the regions of Banja Luka, Doboj, Bijeljna, Sokolac and Trebinje. Having analysed all gathered information the present work will try to identify some policy measures that could have a positive impact on economical prosperity of rural areas and promotion of a national rural development strategy.