ZAGREB, 29 Jan 2022 - Homeland Movement (DP) leader Ivan Penava said in Osijek on Saturday that this year's sowing in Croatia would be the most expensive ever and that it would result in the collapse of the national farm sector and citizens' living standards.

"The government is ignoring the problem and is late in responding," Penava told a news conference.

A member of the DP Agriculture Committee, Darko Dimić, said that the coming pre-sowing fertilisation would be a number of times more expensive than last year.

Talks with farmers have shown that they will reduce the use of artificial fertilisers by 25-50%, which will result in a drop in yields and their quality, Dimić said.

Asked by reporters to comment on an increase in the number of deaths in 2021 in relation to the 2015-2019 average, Penava said the incumbent government did not concern itself with demography just as previous governments had not.

As for a reporter's remark that Vukovar and Vukovar-Srijem County had lost the largest number of residents, according to preliminary results of the 2021 census, Penava said that it was true when one spoke about relative percentages but that Osijek-Baranja County was the one to have lost the largest number of inhabitants.

"I have been saying for ten years that Vukovar does not have 27,000 inhabitants, which is the number from 2011, but 22,000. This census will prove that we were right and that the number was exaggerated," Penava said, noting that Serbs did not account for almost 35% of Vukovar's population.

"I have been saying for years that the only one who benefits from that percentage is the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), because the number of its councillors (in the Vukovar city council) and its income from the city budget as well as its other rights depend on it," said Penava, who is also Mayor of Vukovar.