A significant number of small farms in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) produce berry fruits. Some of them achieve good economic results, however many have significant potential for further improvement. Due to several beneficial factors, many farms decide for cultivation of a single berry fruit activity, however this decision implies a potential risk in case of unfavourable production or market conditions for that crop. The aim of this analysis is therefore to observe the extent of risk reduction by application of different diversification strategies, using two types of berry fruits; and the most efficient production plans for such a farm from a risk perspective. A linear program was utilized to prepare an optimal production plan, while quadratic risk programming served to analyse risk. Results show that diversification could be a significantly important possibility for risk reduction on such farm type. It is possible to reduce risk with capital and labour less intensive production activities. Production of the highly intensive strawberry variety Clery has highest Estimated Gross Margin (EGM), but is also associated with very high risk. If one includes raspberries or blueberries into the production plan, it is possible to significantly reduce risk while almost keeping EGM at the same level. On the other hand, if the farmer is risk averse, the highest opportunity cost for risk reduction on such a farm type is in production of raspberry and blueberry, where it is necessary to give up 3.25 EUR on average for decreasing risk for one EUR. In the other two scenarios, production of strawberry – blueberry and strawberry – raspberry, risk gradient values are almost the same with amount 2.57 EUR sand 2.56 EUR, respectively.

This paper aims to analyse the level, structure and number of direct payment schemes, the achieved level of harmonization with the common agricultural policy (CAP), and to point out the threats and challenges of the agricultural sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&amp;H). The complexity of the political system in B&amp;H has negative effect on the overall economic development of the country, and especially on sensitive sectors such as agriculture. As a result, agricultural policy in B&amp;H shows great deviations from the foreseen objectives, which are often changed without clearly defined development goals. This is also reflected in the fact that direct support is the most important form of support for agricultural producers in B&amp;H. In the structure of direct payments, considerably higher share of payments is per output than per hectare/livestock unit. Although B&amp;H as a clear objective has European integration and harmonization of agricultural policy with the CAP, this process is slow, with no visible signs, without political readiness for faster improvement, and will in the future require significant changes.<br><br>

This paper aims to analyse the level, structure and number of direct payment schemes, the achieved level of harmonization with the common agricultural policy (CAP), and to point out the threats and challenges of the agricultural sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&amp;H). The complexity of the political system in B&amp;H has negative effect on the overall economic development of the country, and especially on sensitive sectors such as agriculture. As a result, agricultural policy in B&amp;H shows great deviations from the foreseen objectives, which are often changed without clearly defined development goals. This is also reflected in the fact that direct support is the most important form of support for agricultural producers in B&amp;H. In the structure of direct payments, considerably higher share of payments is per output than per hectare/livestock unit. Although B&amp;H as a clear objective has European integration and harmonization of agricultural policy with the CAP, this process is slow, with no visible signs, without political readiness for faster improvement, and will in the future require significant changes.<br><br>

Abstract The most popular measure of the National Rural Development Programme in Romania for 2007-2013 was the measure 121 addressing the support for modernisation of agriculture While the success at the level of the Programme is measured by the achievement level of the assumed indicators the present analysis is focused on differences between the volumes of proposed, selected, contracted and concluded projects. These differences as observations and findings contribute as learning points to the further use of public support for investments in agriculture by three main categories of users: the administration with the procedural enhancement in programme implementation, the beneficiaries improving their approach and readiness for applications/projects and the consultants in perfecting their tools and work to support and smoothen the resources transfer in the process.

The first consistent support framework allowing the use of specific Community-Led Local Development approaches and tools was represented by the first Rural Development Programme of Romania as member state of the EU. The Axis 4 LEADER of the programme created the premises for the aggregation of the public-private partnerships and the participatory development of their future Local Development Strategies. The delayed start and the unprepared rural actors proved a high learning and adjusting capacity reflected by the success of the implementation of contracted projects. The levels as expressed by totals of number and values of the projects are analysed in-depth searching indications of determined development directions. The findings underline the readiness and willingness of the rural actors supported by high levels of private contribution in co-financing specific investment projects.

For many years rural was associated with population decline, degradation of the countryside, population aging, gender inequality, increased unemployment and poverty. However, recent research emphasise that there are peripheral areas that perform good or even better than urban areas which leads to the concept of “differential performance” between rural areas which exist in relatively similar conditions related to geography, location, available natural resources, policies, etc. It is obvious that traditional theories related to rural-urban development processes, cannot explain those performance differences of rural areas with similar characteristics. In this study the authors are presenting key aspects of main development theories that can be conected to the development of rural areas. Likewise, they present the model and significant research efforts supporting the theory on the potentials of immobile resources for creating competitive advantages in rural areas and possibility for economic development (also known as Bryden's theory). In this context, immobile resources are including natural, built, human, social and cultural capital.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina some rural municipalities with similar population density are very different regarding key demographic and economic indicators like migration, unemployment and average wages. According to the existing studies in Europe the answer for differential economic performance is firstly in the potential of local community to recognize, strengthen and utilize less mobile assets in the form of economic, social, cultural and natural capital. Secondly, researchers point to the synergy between those assets and external networking and using information and communications technology in reaching new markets and resources. Understanding the reasons for differential economic performance and more or less competitiveness in rural areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina could thus be a key element in devising practical strategies and programs for sustainable rural development. This could also contribute to the programming of Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance for Rural Development of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the future. The aim of the study is by comparing the most and least developed rural municipalities to investigate the reasons for the differences in economic performance, in particular, to investigate the role of capitals or tangible and less tangible factors influencing development outcomes. In order to achieve that, the authors have chosen high and low performing municipalities according to the criteria of population density, rurality and proximity to large city. In order to have more clear picture, community profiling is conducted and data was collected by surveying community stakeholders. The analysis showed that in high performing municipality all capitals are accessible and properly utilized with space for improvement while low performing municipality has many problems and higher need for change and new strategy of development.

This report was prepared by a team of academic experts from Western Balkan (WB) countries coordinated by the Regional Rural Development Standing Working Group (SWG) in South-East Europe. The study targets EU candidate and potential candidate countries from the Western Balkan region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo*). The main objectives of the study is the monitoring and evaluation of agricultural policies in the period 2012-2014 and assessment of the related key EU integration issues of the region. The study also outlines policy recommendation relevant in the wider regional context of the agricultural sector development as well as with respect to the region's EU integration process. The study results reveal that no major shifts in production and farm structure took place in the region in the study period, however, some expansion of WB agricultural trade, which are mainly a result of stronger exports, are reported. All study countries have prepared and most have also adopted a new strategic framework for the future of agricultural policies with more elaborated focus on EU harmonisation process. However, there were not observed pronounced changes in the actual structure and the volume of budgetary transfers related to agricultural policies in the region in the study period 2013-2015. Compared with the support granted under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in EU, the total budgetary support in WBs is still relatively low. Direct payments linked to specific production sectors (coupled support) are the main type of agricultural support implemented in WB countries. The type of direct payments and supported sectors are under constant adjustment. However, the policy instruments' alignment of WB countries to CAP-like policy is limited. As a general rule, agricultural budgets are not development-oriented. The institutional limitations in the implementation of the IPARD pre-accession support, the lack of clear action plans for policy reforms and the absence of the evidence based policy approach to policy-making are a few areas constraining a better design and implementation of agricultural policies in WB and for which policy recommendations and future tasks are outlined in this study

Complexity of the political system in Bosnia and Herzegovina reflects to entire economy of the country, especially to sensitive sectors as agriculture. Current agricultural BIH policy managed on entity and Brcko District level faces numerous challenges and dilemmas. Apart from insufficiently clear commitment to CAP EU convergence, major dilemmas are those related to further shaping of institutional-regulatory framework as well as selection of strategic course of sector development. Having in mind lack of common BIH agricultural policy and sector institutional weaknesses, our intention is to answer following two questions: (i) does it reflect to direct support of producers and (ii) are BIH farmers in unequal and uncompetitive position? In order to analyze actual situation it was used APM tool (Agri-Policy Measures) developed within FAO-SWG project. Based on outputs of this analysis we made recommendations and suggestions on the way of proceeding in such circumstances.