Sub-committee set up to monitor damage repair in agriculture

BELGRADE - The Serbian parliament's committee on agriculture decided on Friday to set up a sub-committee tasked with monitoring the repair of the damage caused by the severe flash floods that hit villages, the fields of agriculture, forestry and water management.

Chair of the Agriculture Committee Marijan Risticevic told reporters that the committee does not yet have complete data on the damage in the field of agriculture, as municipalities should deliver them separately, but noted that the communities sustained serious losses with tens of thousands of hectares flooded.

The sub-committee will have five members, and Risticevic noted that this body, unfortunately, will probably work over the entire year due to the catastrophic extent of the damage.

He said that the sub-committee members will tour the sites, and hold meetings in the flood-affected areas on days when the parliament is not sitting.

Risticevic said that the consequences of the floods cannot be remedied in the same way in all areas, given difference in various terrains, and noted that in some places there are so many ground waters that farmers will not be able to cultivate crops by autumn.

Risticevic notes that it will take a year or two, somewhere even more for the soil to recover, adding that the measures should be taken to restore the quality of flooded arable land so that next year, if not this one, Serbia could have yields as in the best years.

Photo Tanjug, J. Pap (illustration)