Instead of chugging away in the fields, the tractors of Banatsko Novo Selo, not far from Pančevo, are standing quietly on roads.
That scene, from the South Banat village some 30 kilometres from Belgrade, is not unique. Farmers, who have been protesting for two weeks over the state of agriculture, have radicalised their protest by blocking dozens of roads across Serbia.
On the second day of this form of protest, around 80 regional, local and main roads were blocked, the Beta news agency reported.
“The main problems are imports and the import lobby – the state is importing wheat, maize and similar cheap goods; the same applies to milk and meat, and our products no longer have any significance here,” Kristijan Todorov from Banatsko Novo Selo told BBC News in Serbian.
“Farmers can no longer manage to cover their basic costs, let alone earn something and survive,” adds Todorov from the Novoseljanski Paori association.
As he says, all producers have come out – “dairy farmers, livestock breeders, arable farmers and vegetable growers” – since they are all in the same mode of “mere survival”, but “the state is not listening”.
At a meeting on 17 February, they proposed solutions to the relevant ministry and submitted them as an official four-point demand, to which the ministry has not responded, they add.
Responding to the protest, Agriculture Minister Dragan Glamočić said that decisions would not be made “under pressure” and that farmers who do not wish to speak with him are engaging in “petty politics”.
“Drunken millionaires wearing Rolex watches”
Because of these remarks, dissatisfied farmers announced that they “refuse any dialogue with the minister”, the Beta agency reported.
Farmers are demanding a suspension of imports of all agricultural products until “the market stabilises”, that the current surpluses be purchased into state commodity reserves, and they are also seeking a solution for milk purchases, which had previously been halted.
In 2024, agriculture accounted for 6.1 per cent of Serbia’s gross domestic product (GDP), that is, of everything produced in Serbia.
This sector employs 20 per cent of the total workforce.
Serbia is a candidate for membership of the European Union and has committed to aligning its agricultural policies with those of the European community, including opening its market to products from the EU.
The farmers’ protest began on 11 February with the blocking of the Ibarska Magistrala main road in the village of Mrčajevci near Čačak, organised by the Šajkača association and the Association of Milk Producers of Šumadija and Pomoravlje.
They poured out milk in front of the City Administration building in Kraljevo and distributed the rest to citizens.
The protests then spread to other places across Serbia.
The decision to radicalise the protest was taken by representatives of 32 agricultural associations at a joint meeting on 21 February at the blockade of the Ibarska Magistrala in Mrčajevci.
“The protests have already been going on for 14 days; it was decided to radicalise them with blockades, so we shall see what happens,” Todorov says.
“The state has our problems on the table, but at the moment it is not listening to us.”
Although the picture does not change much – farmers protest every year, but “nothing changes except the ministers” – Todorov says the protest has never been so widespread, which he sees as “a sign that the situation is the same across the country”.
“For five years I have sat in meetings with five ministers, and we are still where we were – on the streets and in trouble,” he says and adds:“They do not hear us in Belgrade; the street is the only place where you can express dissatisfaction, we cannot fight in any other way. “Will the protests continue? Probably. Will they become even more radical? Probably.”
One farmer from Novo Selo near Loznica in western Serbia told N1 that a local official had threatened him with death because of the protest.
They are angry with Minister Glamočić and his claims that “profit per cow is 4,000 euros”, that producers are “drunken millionaires wearing Rolex watches”, his remarks asking why they engage in this work if it supposedly does not pay, and his messages that they are young and can find another job. “Because of all this, and the statement that we are ‘political schemers’, we consider it beneath our dignity to continue any dialogue with such a minister,” representatives of the protesting farmers’ associations said.
The farmers’ demands have also been supported by students, who have been protesting for more than a year over the collapse of a canopy at the newly renovated railway station in Novi Sad, demanding accountability for the deaths of 16 people.
“Deep ploughing of the system,” they wrote on social media, alongside a map of protest locations and a call for people to join the farmers.
In order to “support the paori, farmers and dairy producers in their struggle for rights and survival in Serbia”, Danilo Stojić set off on foot on a 17-kilometre journey from Pančevo to Banatsko Novo Selo.
He also sees importers and the “agricultural mafia” as the key problem.
“The struggle is long; we shall win the battle, and I hope the war as well,” Stojić from Dolovo, one of the villages in the Pančevo area, told BBC News in Serbian.
“When there is a bad year, farmers have to wait for subsidies, and then the state pushes them to be neutral and passive, not to take to the streets – that is why it is important to support them when they do, so they know they are not alone,” Stojić concludes.
(BBC Serbia, 25.02.2026)
https://www.bbc.com/serbian/articles/c86y0ydl62no/lat