By signing the Sofia Declaration on the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, the leaders of the countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), committed themselves to the implementation of five basic courses of action established by the action plan, which include: 1) decarbonization, 2) circular economy, 3) depollution, 4) sustainable agriculture and 5) protection of nature and biodiversity. This commitment means that the creation and implementation of policies should be strongly marked by an environmental approach, not only because of EU requirements but also because of the practical importance for overall sustainable development. Because of this, support measures in an increasing number of countries imply the application of measures such as making direct payments subject to the fulfillment of the so-called cross-compliance or special payments for agroecological practices, sustainable land management, etc. However, the measures included in the Green Agenda in BiH are applied very modestly, which will be presented in this paper for the period 2018-2021. Practically, measures to support organic production, soil fertility control, and the protection of genetic resources are the only ones on track with the Green Deal goals. It is expected that the new strategic documents in the field of agriculture will take into account the objectives of the CAP, and thus the Green Deal, and will bring the agriculture policy of BiH closer to the policy of the EU, for which BiH decided a long time ago.  

Agriculture in Bosnia and Herzegovina faces numerous challenges, including global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, regional issues like African swine fever, and increasingly severe impacts of climate change. On the other hand, BiH is clearly committed to EU integration, as reflected in current state and entity level strategic documents. Moreover, the country's efforts to accelerate the harmonization of its agricultural policy with the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have been further motivated by the granting of candidate status in 2022 and negotiation status in 2024 for full EU membership. This paper provides an overview of the development of agricultural policy in BiH from 2014 to 2023 at the state and entity levels (including the Brčko District of BiH) to assess the level of harmonization with the EU CAP using the unique APMC methodology for classifying and visualizing agricultural budget transfers. The analysis covers three groups of measures: (1) market measures and direct support to producers, (2) structural measures and rural development measures, and (3) general agricultural measures. Key macroeconomic indicators such as gross value added, employment levels, and trade balance were analyzed to obtain a comprehensive picture of the current state of the agricultural sector and its significance for the economy of BiH. An important contribution of the paper is comparing Bosnia and Herzegovina's agricultural policy with those of the Western Balkan countries. The main conclusion that can be drawn from this paper is that agriculture is an important sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina's economy, with budgetary transfers to this sector showing a growing trend. However, the process of harmonization with the EU acquis is slow and requires greater decisiveness from policymakers, faster adoption of the legislative framework, and appropriate legal solutions, along with the necessary institutional strengthening to address the current challenges of the EU integration process.

Poljoprivredni sektor Bosne i Hercegovine (BiH) nalazi se pred brojnim izazovima uzrokovanim sve izraženijim geopolitičkim tenzijama, unutrašnjim političkim problemima, negativnim posljedicama klimatskih promjena kao i strukturnim, ekonomskim i agrarno-političkim nedostacima. Poljoprivreda i njeni lanci vrijednosti, osim rijetkih primjera, nedovoljno su konkurentni, a BiH je izraziti neto uvoznik poljoprivredno-prehrambenih proizvoda, sa -3,9 milijardi KM trgovačkog deficita (2024). Ruralna područja značajno zaostaju u razvoju i suočena su sa sve prisutnijom depopulacijom i problemom nedostatka radnih mjesta i radne snage. Jedan od glavnih političkih ciljeva BiH, barem deklarativno, jeste pristupanje Europskoj uniji (EU). To implicira da je Zajednička poljoprivredna politika (ZPP) glavno polazište za postavljanje buduće poljoprivredne politike BiH, odnosno Federacije BiH (FBiH), Republike Srpske (RS) i Brčko distrikta BiH (BDBiH). Ovaj rad analizira strukturu trenutno provedenih poljoprivrednih politika u entitetima BiH i BDBiH i agregatno na nivou BiH te dostignuti stepen usklađenosti sa ZPP-om. Neizvjesnost uslovljena početkom pregovora i datumom pristupanja EU i promjenjiva priroda ZPP-a (ZPP kao pokretna meta), mogu implicirati da je izbor poljoprivredne politike u BiH entitetima rezultat, s jedne strane zahtjeva procesa pristupanja EU, a s druge strane domaćih političkih pritisaka. Za potrebe ovog rada korišten je konceptualni okvir za definisanje ključnih načela usklađivanja poljoprivrednih politika i klasifikacijski sistem mjera poljoprivredne politike (APMC), čime je omogućeno detaljno razumijevanje postojeće poljoprivredne podrške u BiH. Iako BiH i njeni entiteti su jasnog opredijeljenja približavanju ZPP-u u budućnosti, stvarna implementacija poljoprivrednih politika značajno odstupa od deklariranog pristupa i više odražava domaće političko-ekonomske interese. Očekivani pritisci pregovora o pristupanju EU i pretpristupna pomoć EU, koja je trenutno znatno niža u odnosu na druge zemlje Zapadnog Balkana (nedostatak pristupa IPARD fondovima), trebali bi biti ključni elementi procesa pristupanja EU koji će potaknuti BiH da prilagodi svoje poljoprivredne politike ZPP-u.

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>

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.

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.