As part of the “Local Funds for Agricultural Development” project, on Friday, August 18, 2023 a cooperation agreement was signed between the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, the Braničevo-Podunavlje Regional Development Agency and the Municipality of Velika Plana.
Velika plana, after Novi Pazar, Vlasotince and Nova Crnja, is the fourth municipality in Serbia which in the last year has established a fund for incentives for the development of agriculture with the support of the “Big Small Business” project, financed by USAID, implementing ACDI/VOCA. The funds are designed and launched with the goal of enabling farmers at the local level to obtain the interest-free financial funds for improving production in a more simpler way.
The local self-government allocated 2,000,000 dinars for this Fund, while the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation participated with 1,000,000 dinars.
Since 2020, with the support of USAID, a total of 12 local funds have been established in Čajetina, Vranje, Prijepolje, Svrljig, Ražanj, Užice, Dimitrovgrad, Brus, Veliko Gradište, Novi Pazar, Vlasotince and Nova Crnja. In the next three years the plan is to establish additional 10 funds throughout Serbia, and all interested municipalities will be provided with the necessary assistance in starting and implementing this financing model.
“We are aware that farmers often have to rely on their own funds to invest in production, because they have difficult access to commercial loans. The establishment of innovative revolving funds, in cooperation with local self-governments, is a way to provide initial financing to small agricultural producers for the improvement and increase of production on their farms, at the same time enabling them to provide the necessary funds in a simple and transparent way,” said Miroslava. Panić, manager for access to finances of the “Big Small Business” project on this occasion.
The competition for funds intended for agricultural producers from the territory of the Municipality of Velika Plana, will be announced by the end of August. These funds will enable the users of the Fund to improve their family farms by purchasing machinery or livestock.
“Three years ago, we started implementing this kind of innovative way of financing small agricultural farms, which made it much easier for them to access and return financial resources. We are very satisfied with the response from municipalities and individuals who applied for funds so far. Velika Plana is one of the municipalities that recognized the importance of such a financial mechanism and accepted it as a model for financing small agricultural producers, and with today’s signing of the Agreement for the establishment of the fund, a cycle that should become self-sustaining and continue in the coming years has officially begun,” pointed out Ana Koeshall director of the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation.
In addition to resources from the Local Funds, local agricultural producers can also apply for other types of support, subsidies and grants provided by the local self-governments and thus further improve their agricultural holdings.