The opening conference held for “AGRINNO” project
The opening conference for the project “Agriculture Innovation Towards Growth and Employment in Cross-Border Region – AGRINNO”, whose implementation is a joint effort of the Provincial Secretariat of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, European Affairs Fund of the AP of Vojvodina, on the Serbian side, and Nonprofit LLC for Csongrád County Development, on the Hungarian side, was held in the completely full large conference room of the AP of Vojvodina.
Vuk Radojević, Provincial Secretary of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Sanda Šimić, Representative of the Ministry of European Integration of the Republic of Serbia, Vidosava Enderić, Director of the European Affairs Fund of the AP of Vojvodina, Svetlana Balešević-Tubić, PhD, Acting Director of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops and Bela Kankaš, President of the Assembly of the Csongrád County gave their welcome speeches. The project itself was presented by the project manager Predrag Rajić.
Provincial Secretary Vuk Radojević called the project historical, primarily given the fact that this is the first European project with the Provincial Secretariat of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management as the leading partner, stressing that the total project value itself amounting to EUR 325,536.75 (EUR 252,849.90 of EU funds) was several times above the project nominal value since the main idea is to motivate the young to stay in the countryside and because the target group of the project are especially young farmers under 40. The project aims to ensure overall improvement of the agricultural innovation approach for using arable land in household gardens in the cross-border area by introducing new technologies for producing crops, and it will be implemented though the assistance for the unemployed who own arable land in the cross-border area.
Vidosava Enderić, Director of the European Affairs Fund of the AP of Vojvodina stressed that the EU had recognized agriculture as one of the most important fields to establish a common policy for. Consequently, the European Union is now the global leader in trading agricultural food products, and our new project is an example of local action contributing to the achievement of global sustainable development goals.
The guest from the Csongrád County, President of the Assembly Bela Kankaš underscored that the people in Vojvodina were blessed with high-quality land and a large number of sunny days which provided an opportunity but also an obligation in terms of development, stressing that he was deeply convinced that Vojvodina could be the repository for entire Serbia.
