Sunflower at 50, Corn at 19 Dinars: Farmers Demand Aid

Sunflower is fetching an advance purchase price of 50 dinars per kilogram in Serbia this season, while growers in neighboring countries are getting between 65 and 70 dinars for the same crop. A gap of almost thirty percent, combined with a yield that is on average 40 percent below normal, leaves farmers doing math that, they say, doesn’t even cover their production costs.

The picture looks similar for other row crops. Buyers are offering 19 dinars per kilogram for corn and just over 20 dinars for wheat. Farmers from several Vojvodina municipalities, in statements to the Beta news agency on September 1, warned that prices are at rock bottom at the very moment drought has cut yields in half, and are calling on the state to pay out a second subsidy tranche before autumn planting begins. If it doesn’t come, they say, protests will follow.

How much are farmers losing per hectare

Dragan Kleut, a farmer from Stajicevo near Zrenjanin, estimates that sunflower yields around Zrenjanin this year range from 500 kilograms to 1.4 tons per hectare, compared with about four tons in a good year. He said sunflower production costs more than other row crops to begin with, which makes the price drop hit even harder.

“The situation in agriculture is desperate. They’re offering an advance price of 50 dinars per kilogram for sunflower, just over 20 for wheat, and 19 dinars for corn. What can you even buy for 19 dinars a kilogram?”

Kleut said on September 1, in comments carried by the Beta news agency.

Nedeljko Savic, president of the “Stig” farmers’ association, does similar math. He has 60 hectares under sunflower, and with a yield of up to 2.8 tons per hectare at the offered advance price, he calculates he’ll end up three million dinars in the red, roughly 25,600 euros. Jovica Jaksic, one of the few farmers to get a somewhat better yield this year, around three tons per hectare, says the market price of sunflower is about 56 dinars per kilogram, against roughly 80 dinars in neighboring countries. Even with the better yield, he says, his production costs still won’t be covered.

Corn tells the same story. Yields in Vojvodina this year are around four tons per hectare, instead of the usual 10 to 12 tons. Near Subotica, farmer Miroslav Matkovic says the yield is likewise around four tons per hectare, with weak buyer interest and a price of 19 dinars per kilogram.

“I don’t even dare calculate how big a loss I’ll take on my row crops this year,” Matkovic said.

Can sorghum replace corn in dry years?

Matkovic also pushed back on a claim by Agriculture Minister Dragan Glamocic that sorghum can yield up to eight tons per hectare even in a drought year, making it a viable alternative to corn.

“On the experimental sorghum plots, this year’s drought has brought yields of up to two tons per hectare. When I asked seed dealers whether sorghum can germinate without rain, in dry dust, they told me it needs rain too. If sorghum, which can’t replace corn anyway, needs rain to grow, why would anyone plant it? Because if there’s rain, we can just as well plant corn.”

Matkovic said, questioning the ministry’s reasoning that offers sorghum as a substitute for corn in dry years.

What farmers want before autumn planting

Farmers are asking for three things before autumn planting starts: payment of the second tranche of state subsidies, a bigger refund on fuel excise, and concrete measures to address the drought damage. Kleut singled out Minister Glamocic directly, arguing that measures introduced by the ministry stripped local residents of their right of first refusal on leasing state land, handing the advantage to bigger lessees instead.

“Because of that, people close to those in power are leasing hundreds of hectares of state land, and small farmers who couldn’t lease state land in their own villages will be wiped out. Only big investors will be left.”

Kleut said, adding that poor agricultural policy has shrunk the number of farms by several tens of thousands over the past few years, and that farmers without ties to the ruling party also fare worse in tenders for subsidized farm machinery.

If the second subsidy tranche doesn’t arrive before autumn planting, farmers from several Vojvodina municipalities say they will protest. Whether it comes to that depends on the coming weeks, during which the corn harvest itself is still under way, and on the Agriculture Ministry’s decision on when the payments will go out.