President Milanović at Faculty of Agriculture on its 105th Anniversary: Agriculture is a strategic sector that demands our full attention
“I congratulate you on this impressive anniversary. The 105th anniversary of the Faculty of Agriculture marks an incredibly long period, which shows and proves that Croatia built institutions like this one, and not only this one, more than a hundred years ago. It also shows that, in this respect, we could have been a country even earlier. We had everything except the two elements that definitively and necessarily make up a state: an army and diplomacy, without which you are not a state,” said the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović during a formal session of the Faculty Council held today on the occasion of the 105th anniversary of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zagreb.
President Milanović described the University of Zagreb as the cradle of Croatian intellect and identity, without which we would not be what we are today. “This University, and within it the Faculty of Agriculture, has sustained itself as a truly rooted institution, generally outside of politics, parties, or regimes,” he said, reminding that in the past, the University of Zagreb was mostly led by non-partisan individuals.
In his address, President Milanović also spoke about the importance of agriculture for both the Croatian economy and the economy of the entire European Union. “What are we even talking about here if agriculture accounts for two percent of Croatia’s GDP? What’s wrong –are we wrong, or are the numbers wrong? And how is that even possible? Two percent of Croatia’s GDP is nominally less than two billion dollars. That’s an insignificant amount, and there’s no point in even discussing it. Or does it, like many measurements, not reflect the true state of affairs? In the structure of the European Union’s economy, agriculture also represents two percent. Yet, at the same time, the budget of the European Community, now the European Union, allocated 50 percent of its funds to agriculture. Today, it’s a meagre 30 percent of the total funds collected at the level of Brussels and the European Union, used to support activities like production and soil preservation – so not production in the narrow sense of the word. And all of this for something that accounts for just two percent of the economy,” said President Milanović.
For this reason, he pointed out that all these figures should be taken with a grain of salt, checked multiple times, and we should be aware “that food production – as well as coal and steel, which were the reasons for the founding of the European Community – is the key factor that made the difference between satiety and hunger, life and death, war and peace.” Given that today 50 percent of the EU budget goes to agriculture, and the remaining 50 percent to all other needs, President Milanović adds that this proves “the EU was never, is not, and realistically never will be a true state, nor should it become one.”
It is up to us, as much as possible, to harness those two percent of GDP, these unsown and uncultivated hectares, and make something out of them. Companies like Podravka and other similar Croatian firms should be the strongest, the best, the most competitive, and the most aggressive in a market where food is a strategic raw material,” said President Milanović, concluding: “Agriculture is a strategic sector of utmost significance. Given the importance of food production, it demands our full attention.”
In addition to President Milanović, the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Prof. Dr. Ivica Kisić, the Rector of the University of Zagreb, Prof. Dr. Stjepan Lakušić, the President of the Management Board of Podravka Group, Dr. Martina Dalić, the Deputy Secretary General of ICA (Association for European Life Science Universities), Dr. Simon B. Heath, the Mayor of the City of Zagreb, Tomislav Tomašević, the Minister of Science, Education and Youth, and the delegate of the Croatian Prime Minister, Prof. Dr. Radovan Fuchs, as well as a member of the Croatian Parliament and delegate of the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament, Associate Prof. Dr. Vesna Bedeković, also spoke at the formal session of the Faculty Council.
President Milanović was accompanied by Jadranka Žarković, Adviser to the President of the Republic for Education.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Tomislav Bušljeta