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Serbia’s Roma Put Hope in Farm Cooperative

By Branislav Jovanovic in Stari Banovci

07 12 2007  A pioneering enterprise in Vojvodina gives farmers from the Roma community greater access to the market.

Following decades of neglect under communist rule, Serbia's sizeable Roma community is now seeking a way out of misery, sometimes through unorthodox projects.

In an unusual move, a Serb woman has recently launched the Maj Lacho Trajo (A Better Life) agricultural cooperative enterprise.

Based in Stari Banovci in the northern province of Vojvodina and just outside Belgrade, the enterprise run by Andjelka Djuric was set up to make money by selling fruit, vegetables and flowers from several hectares of land and gardens owned by members.

When she started the cooperative, Djuric brought in several dozen local Roma families who account for 70 per cent of the cooperative’s members. She said that her reasons were both business-related and altruistic.

“I grew up in a Roma neighborhood, and I saw this as a challenge because the Roma are so marginalized in society,” Djuric told Balkan Insight. “Clearly I expected profits for all involved,” she said.

According to a 2002 population census there are some 108,000 Roma in Serbia. The figure is far from accurate, and it is widely believed their real numbers range from 450,000 to 800,000 because many Roma declared themselves as Serbs or Bosniaks.

Many who fled to Serbia during the Balkan wars in 1990s have no identification documents, and so far the authorities have made no efforts to register them.

Unemployment is rampant, and according to official data, only around 27 per cent of adult Roma in Serbia are economically active as opposed to almost 70 per cent of the rest of the population.

Although the government of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has joined an international project, dubbed the “Decade of Roma Inclusion”, the authorities have made only a token effort to improve health protection for the Roma. Attempts aimed at boosting employment have fallen far short of the target, the authorities acknowledged recently.

Djuric said that one of her reasons for starting the business was to create employment for the Roma, especially women who now comprise some 60 per cent of the cooperative’s members.

“They (Roma women) are mainly unemployed, almost completely dependent on their husbands and frequently subjected to violence within the family,” she said.

Slavica Jovanovic, one of the members, said that the cooperative “was a way out of” hardship. “I want to succeed,” she said.

Slavica is one of several locals who bear the surname Jovanovic, which is common among Orthodox Christian Roma, most of whom are not related.


Another cooperative member, who identified himself only as Jovica, said that Djuric’s project “was giving him hope for a better life.” He added: “I didn’t have a job, money put aside for a pension, nothing.”

However, at the very start, the cooperative stumbled across bureaucracy. Djuric said she initially asked the authorities for help. “I sought some financial assistance to rent an office, and although the mayor backed the project, our request was rejected as the municipal budget lacked funds,” she said.

Zeljko Mitrovic the mayor of the Stari Banovci municipality said that “the cooperative sought financial aid, business space and allocation of some arable land.” However, he continues, “we explained that such things are not our responsibility and told them to seek assistance elsewhere.”

Roma parties have backed the idea, but have given no concrete help, Djuric said.

Dusko Jovanovic, the director of the Roma Inclusion Office in Vojvodina’s capital, Novi Sad, said that the Maj Lacho Trajo cooperative needs “1 million dinars (€13,000) to start operating effectively.” He said that province’s government “might have a solution for this problem” but did not specify further.

Branislav Jovanovic of the Regional Roma Office in the neighboring town of Stara Pazova which is also the administrative centre for the area including Stari Banovci, said that “launching the cooperative was bad as far as the status of Roma is concerned, as it was fueling prejudices that Roma are not capable of launching businesses themselves.” However, he sounded a positive note, saying, “anyway, I wish them luck”.

However, many local Serbs and Roma alike are backing Djuric and her endeavours. The cooperative is “what Stari Banovci needs,” one of their number, Zlata Jovanovic, said. “I know many people who are members of the cooperative and if they were ready to invest their land in the project, I might be ready as well,” she said.

Jelica Dejanovic, a Serb woman from Stari Banovci said she “was delighted” after finding out about the new cooperative. “They (Roma) are tenacious and I think they will make it.”

The Stari Banovci cooperative may be a pioneering enterprise, but it has no shortage of supporters.


Branislav Jovanovic is the founder of the Romska omladina danas-ROD NGO and a student of the Novi Sad University
This article was published with the support of the British embassy in Belgrade and Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe, OSCE, mission in Serbia, as part of BIRN's Minority Media Training and Reporting Project