The drought that hit larger parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina this year will result in damage worth more than a billion marks, according to farmers’ estimates, which is in turn expected to lead to the increased prices of agricultural and other products.

According to farmers, a drought of such extent was not recorded in the past 50 years. The most endangered crops this year are corn and soybeans.

Muhamed Softic, a farmer, said the drought destroyed their crops and they lacked sufficient amounts of water to recover them.

Although they reached the authorities for help, the farmers have not got any feedback yet. They ask for regular payment of incentives and, as they said, it would have been good if the authorities declared the state of a natural disaster during the heatwave.

“The system is complicated in the way that for our farmers to get a compensation, the municipality where they live should declare the state of natural disaster,” explained Nedzad Bico, a representative of a farmers’ association in Bosnia’s Federation entity.

The situation is the same in other Bosnia’s entity, Republika Srpska.

“The damage will be estimated in autumn when incomes will be by 50, 60, 70 percent lower. We will suffer damage of at least a billion and a half (marks),” said Vladimir Usorac, a representative of the farmers’ association.

(1€ = 1.95 Bosnian marks)