Study visit of Serbian experts from the Managing Authority, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection (MAEP) organised under the Twinning Light Project SR2013/IB/AG/01 TWL

17.07.2014

During a one week visit to Austria and Bavaria, the Head of Managing Authority, Mr Dragan Mirkovic and colleagues from the department for rural development received a practical training in the field of agricultural and rural development.

The main topics of the on-the-job training were dedicated to the structure, tasks and activities of the Managing Authority on programming and measure design mainly on agri-environment and technical assistance. The other days were dedicated to show practical examples of investment measures covering the meat and dairy sector as well as rural tourism activities.

On the first day the experts got a general overview on rural development policy and focused on the management and coordination of the Austrian rural development programme. The head of the Austrian Managing Authority explained the programming process for the new programming period, its main challenges and the participation process including the involvement of stakeholders. A main point of interest was dedicated to the new organisational structure of the Austrian Ministry, which was recently implemented. Moreover, the experts explained the implementation of technical assistance measure and its legal framework in Austria.

The other days were dedicated to visit farms and production establishments to show the practical implementation of investments in agriculture and rural development. Together with the Austrian Project Leader Mr Patschka, the group continued their tour to the region of Waldviertel to visit the innovative local cheese factory “Käsemacherwelt”. The next day, the group visited the leader region of Mühlviertler Alm, where the development and implementation of different projects seeking integration of tourism activities were shown.
The Serbian experts continued their travel to Bavaria, where the group was accompanied by Mr. Schick, the key expert in our Twinning light project, who organised visits to a slaughter house of a producer group, a diversification project with farm holidays and a farm shop.

In Bavaria the investment projects covered the visit of the cultural heritage project Herrenchiemsee, which is of high importance for the surrounding tourism orientated farms.
Other investments were in the field of village renewal, infrastructure, business development and leader projects.

The last day of the visit the German experts involved in the project implementation presented the Bavarian administration for Agriculture, Rural development and Forests, the organisational structure and focused on the actual selection of support measures for The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFDR).








Serbian experts from MA








Serbian and Austrian experts