As part of the “Empowerment of young farmers” activity, twelve high school students from Svilajnac and surrounding municipalities, who were selected through a competition for the allocation of funds for the promotion of agriculture, received equipment worth up to 300,000 dinars for the improvement of their farms.
The Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation with students of the final year of the Agricultural-Veterinary School with the “Svilajnac” student dormitory, signed a contract on the donation of funds from the Fund for Support of Young Farmers.
The fund for the Empowerment of Young Farmers was launched in 2018, and since then over 120 young farmers have received donations. In 2022, the Fund supported the Project “Big Small Business” funded by USAID and implemented by ACDI/VOCA. The goal is to support students in the final year of agricultural schools who want to continue farming and improve their family farms.
“This is a small but significant contribution for these young people to improve their farms, but also their knowledge, which they will practically apply in production. We will continue to cooperate with this Fund in the coming years, and at the same time be an example to other municipalities” said Predrag Milanović, president of the municipality of Svilajnac.
In addition to financial support, during the year young people attended lectures and learned to develop their own business plan with the support of mentors.
“Our goal is that young people, in addition to staying in their environment and developing family properties learn to develop products that will find their place on the market. This means that they should follow trends in food production and know how to get incentives that will help them improve production. We hope that other municipalities from which the students of the agricultural school in Svilajnac come will follow the example of Svilajnac, join the activities and thus example of Svilajnac, join the activities and thus enable more students to receive the necessary funds”, said Ivana Božić manager for the development of human capacities and inclusion, project “Big Small Business”.
During 2023, through the activity “Empowerment of Young Farmers” and funds intended for agricultural schools in Svilajnac and Požega, 107 young people were supported through training, and 28 of them received donations in funds for work in the total value of 5.75 million dinars.
“It is with great pleasure that we continue the project, this time in the agricultural-veterinary high school in Svilajnac. The value of this fund is over 1,700,000 dinars and all 12 students who applied for the competition were supported. We invite other municipalities to join us in supporting young famers,” said Ana Koeshall, director of the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, and added that apart from the donation, of even greater importance is the fact that young people had the opportunity to learn how to write a business plan and receive advice on production development and economy, which will be useful later when applying for other tenders and thus receive additional incentive funds.
“The program that the school has been developing throughout the year has finally come to an end and the students, who learned to write business plans through mentor support, successfully applied and received funds for the improvement of their farms. Apart from the financial aspect, which is not negligible, it is very important that such programs support local agriculture among young people, and especially encourage the entrepreneurial spirit”, said Dejan Milunović, director of the Agricultural and Veterinary School with the Student Home “Svilajnac”.
Vojin Vujišić is one of the 12 students of the Agricultural and Veterinary School in Svilajnac who received funding through the competition of the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, which was open until May 8th this year. Vojin completed the mentoring program at the school and successfully applied for a mulcher machine, which will make it easier for his family to mow and shred grass and thus improve the fruit production that his farm has been engaged in for years.
“The rake is attached to our tractor, and the knives effectively shred plant residues and thus turn them into light humus fertilizer, which improved the quality and fertility of the soil. My family and I have been engaged in fruit growing for years and we are planning to expand production, this donation will make our work much easier and help us expand our business faster and more efficiently,” said Vojin, who is one of the few young famers with the desire to stay in the village and continue working on his farm. In addition to the program that went through the project, he plans to apply for other incentives to improve production.