A rise in extreme weather conditions in Serbia is having a severe impact not only on staple crops such as corn and wheat but also on popular heirloom varieties of pepper. While farmers fight to minimize losses and secure state aid, experts warn that such weather patterns will recur in the coming years.
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00:00Red gold. That's what they call this spicy pepper in southern Serbia.
00:06The Goat's Horn is an heirloom pepper variety that grows exclusively in this part of the country
00:11and is the primary source of income for the entire village of Donja Lokosnica.
00:17Ivan Kostic has been stringing peppers together for drying at harvest time for many years.
00:22He says that this summer's yield is less than half what it normally is.
00:26The reason for this is that the region was hit this summer by hail,
00:30four months of drought and then heavy rainfall.
00:57This summer's extreme weather has had a devastating impact on agriculture across Serbia.
01:04Farmers are hoping that the government will declare a natural disaster
01:08and provide the promised financial support.
01:11Experts say that while state subsidies do provide quick relief, they only help in the short term.
01:18They stress that Serbia needs to consider long-term strategies
01:21because extreme weather events such as droughts,
01:24high temperatures and heavy rainfall will occur again in the future.
01:51We need to consider some rational methods for watering, drip-by-drip and so on.
01:56And the third key factor is the choice of species to be harvested,
02:01varieties to be harvested and locations where agricultural production takes place.
02:08While the farmers in Donja Lokosnica are beginning to doubt that a solution
02:12will be found for their traditional pepper variety,
02:15they know how important the Goat's Horn is to the entire village and refuse to give up.
02:21We will fight. It grows only in our new area here, a few kilometres away, and it's successful there.
02:30In Donja Lokosnica, the villagers will continue to do whatever they can
02:34to ensure that the Goat's Horn pepper variety will survive
02:38and can be enjoyed by many generations to come.