Some 400 Obrenovac farm households affected by last spring’s devastating floods today started receiving livelihood assistance from the European Union and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.  The help comes as part of the EU’s total flood recovery package to Serbia valued at Euro 30 million.

Each of the beneficiary farms received 320 kilos or 8 bags of animal feed.

Present for this morning’s distribution event were Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic, Minister of Agriculture and Environmental protection, Michael Davenport, Head of the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia, Sinisa Mali, Mayor of Belgrade City and Miroslav Cuckovic, President of Obrenovac municipality.

“I am happy to be here to witness the livelihood assistance packages being delivered to the small farming families. I am sincerely thankful to the EU for this much needed timely assistance and FAO for bringing the assistance very quickly to the farmers,” said Bogosavljevac Boskovic.

“The EU understood clearly the importance of livelihood recovery after the floods and decided to support the flood-affected small-scale families with livelihood assistance package through FAO,” said Davenport. "The overall aim of the agricultural component of EU's €30m flood relief package is to assist around 15,000 small farming households, which we hope will help them to restore the livelihoods and improve quality of life, and I am extremely happy to be here today to witness how our support is trickling down." “We are thankful to the EU for this grant assistance, which means a lot to our small farmers, and pleased to collaborate with FAO to bring this much-needed livelihood assistance,” said Cuckovic.

FAO’s current recovery effort as financed by the EU targets about 2,100 small-scale, family-operated farms in Obrenovac, Cacak, Lazarevac and Trstenik, which suffered significant losses as a result of unprecedented spring flooding and landslides. Animal feed is procured within Serbia, following issuance of public tenders.

The animal feed initiative in Obrenovac forms part of the EUR 8 million recovery programme for Serbia’s agricultural sector supported by the European Union.

The activities are closely coordinated and implemented in partnership with Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, Government of Serbia Office for Reconstruction and Flood Relief and local governments.

The EU flood relief assistance in Serbia is €30m. The funds will be used for construction of new houses, rehabilitation of public buildings, private houses and roads and recovery of economy and agriculture in 24 municipalities most affected with floods. All activities in the field are implemented by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), a German non-governmental charitable organisation HELP, a German aid and welfare organization Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB) and Danish Refugee Council (DRC) – in coordination with Government of Serbia Office for Reconstruction and Flood Relief.
The information and views set out in this document are those of the FAO and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union.

10 September, Obrenovac, Serbia