Big Small Businesses project (Project) marked the completion of its second cycle for financing young agricultural entrepreneurs on September 11, with a grant award ceremony held for graduates of the Agriculture and Veterinary Secondary School in Svilajnac. The Youth Rural Business Fund (YRBF) was one of the first initiatives launched by the Project at the end of 2022, with the establishment of the Fund in the Agricultural School in Pozega and a couple of months later in Svilajnac. As youth in Serbia are increasingly disinterested in working on family farms, viewing agricultural jobs as low in productivity and poorly paid, the aim was empowering young people and nurturing their entrepreneurial spirit to help the future development of agriculture.

The model is simple: the Fund is created by the joint investment of the municipality and the Divac Foundation with the support of the Project. Interested participants join a mentoring program led by a dedicated school professor and compete for funding by developing a business plan tailored to the specific needs of their family farm. The model has been proven effective in practice, and it continues to scale up. This year, the municipality of Kraljevo recognized the significance of this innovative approach, and in partnership with the Divac Foundation, the Project established the third YRBF. The Fund is valued at ~16.000 USD, so next year, we look forward to meeting new talented students from the Agriculture and Chemistry Secondary School in Kraljevo and seeing how they will enhance their farms performance. Furthermore, the municipality of Gornji Milanovac, influenced by the YRBF model, decided to develop its mechanism to provide local subsidies for young farmers holding diplomas from agricultural high schools or faculties to invest in their farms.