Serbia Adopts Agriculture Strategy Through 2034
Serbia's government adopted the Agriculture and Rural Development Strategy through 2034 on August 13. Subsidies, the farm register and a new food ombudsman are all changing.
The Government of Serbia adopted, on Thursday, August 13, the Agriculture and Rural Development Strategy for the period from 2026 to 2034. The document changes how the state allocates support to farmers, announces a reform of the Register of Agricultural Holdings, and introduces a food ombudsman.
The stated overall goal is to restore the country’s food sovereignty, while ensuring food security for the population, boosting the competitiveness of the agri-food sector and pursuing sustainable development of rural areas. The Agriculture Strategy is to be carried out through national programs and three year action plans, with the first such plan covering the period from 2026 to 2028.
Subsidies Shift Toward Investment
Reforming the subsidy system is, according to a statement from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, the first task following adoption of the strategy. A larger share of public support is meant to go toward investment, production modernization, innovation and the long term sustainability of farms.
The strategy also calls for a bigger share and greater variety of rural development measures within total subsidies. Alongside this, the Register of Agricultural Holdings, the record through which farmers in practice exercise their right to state funding, is being changed.
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Dragan Glamocic said that once the strategy is adopted, the next step is translating the document into concrete programs and measures.
“We don’t need to explain to farmers what the strategy says, but what will change because of it. We will change the subsidy system, the Register of Agricultural Holdings, strengthen investment and processing, producer organization and market regulation. For every measure we will need to know who is carrying it out, within what deadline, at what cost and what result we expect,” Glamocic said.
A deadline, a cost and a performance indicator for each individual measure are exactly what is expected from the action plans, not from the strategic document itself.
What Will the Food Ombudsman Do?
Introducing a food ombudsman is one of the novelties the strategy announces in the section on regulating the market for agricultural products. Alongside that role, the strategy provides for modernizing marketplaces and applying market standards for fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs and poultry meat. Neither the government’s statement nor the ministry’s statement spells out the ombudsman’s powers, leaving that detail to the national programs.
At the same time, the way producers organize themselves is changing. The plan is to establish producer organizations and form umbrella national associations by branch of agriculture, so that individual producers have a stronger negotiating position. The minister explained that part of the strategy in terms of producers’ position in the supply chain.
“A producer must not be the weakest link in the chain. That is why we need better organization among producers, a more orderly market and more processing. Serbia should be selling higher value products, not just raw materials,” Glamocic said.
Water, Climate, Knowledge and Scholarships
The strategy calls for drafting a dedicated irrigation and drainage program, citing increasingly frequent droughts and unstable weather. The same section covers the application of climate smart agriculture, as well as incentives for integrated crop and livestock systems, meaning farms that run crop and livestock production as a single operation.
Advisory services are being folded into the agricultural knowledge and innovation system, known by the acronym AKIS, which connects production, science and advisors. Lifelong learning programs are being added alongside it.
One measure targets young people specifically. Scholarships are planned for the children of agricultural producers who study agronomy, veterinary medicine and related fields.
What Comes Next
Implementation will run through the National Agriculture Program, the National Rural Development Program and three year action plans. These are meant to spell out concrete activities, the bodies responsible for them, deadlines, required funding and performance indicators. The first action plan covers the period from 2026 to 2028, so it will be the first real test of whether the subsidy system has actually shifted toward investment.
Other Decisions From the Session
At the same session, the government adopted a set of conclusions on activities in the area of political and economic empowerment of women, strengthening women’s leadership and entrepreneurship, preventing violence against women and supporting victims. These include the “Leaders, Nothing About Us Without Us” and “Women Drive Serbia” campaigns, the RISE 2026 conference, marking International Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, and the Third National Conference held around November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Planned activities also include training aimed at strengthening the capacity of social work centers.
Cabinet members also agreed to a decision establishing cooperation between the cities of Vranje and Kyustendil in Bulgaria. The cooperation covers culture, education, sport, tourism and the economy, including cross border and joint activities.
