A Brutal Summer Is Hammering Bosnia’s Farmers

Severe heat and drought have smashed Bosnia’s corn crop, and farmers in the northeast say the damage is already devastating family incomes and winter feed supplies.

Quick Take

Farmers around Bijeljina said the corn crop has suffered losses of **40% to 60%**.
One Bijeljina farmer said drought took away **90%** of his crops.
A farmers’ group said heat destroyed nearly **70%** of vegetables and corn.
The United States Department of Agriculture said prolonged heat and low rain were hurting corn, soybeans, fruit, and vegetables, with damage estimates near **$176 million**.

Heat, drought, and burnt fields in northeast Bosnia

Farm reports from Bosnia’s grain belt show a crop under brutal stress. In the Bijeljina area, farmers described corn fields that dried out during repeated heat waves, and media crews showed burnt stalks across wide stretches of land. The Associated Press said the country had already seen several heat waves this summer, with the latest pushing temperatures close to 40 degrees Celsius and worsening drought across the Balkans.

WION and Euronews both reported that farmers in the Bijeljina grain hub estimated damage at roughly half of their crops, while one farmer told reporters his own losses were between 40% and 60%. Those are local estimates, not a full national audit, but they fit the broader picture of heat stress hitting the crop at the worst possible time. Corn is especially vulnerable when hot, dry weather arrives during reproductive growth.

Farmers say the losses are far deeper on individual fields

Some local accounts point to even worse damage. Reuters and Associated Press-style reporting quoted Bijeljina farmer Nebojsa Djokic saying the drought took away about 90% of his crops and left corn so stunted that no cobs formed. Nearby in Brcko, the same reporting said local authorities and farmers described nearly 70% of the corn as destroyed by high temperatures and lack of rain. Those stories show how hard the season hit the most exposed fields.

Producer groups also pushed for state action. One agricultural association official said Bosnia’s heat had destroyed almost 70% of vegetables and corn, while farmers’ groups asked for a drought disaster declaration and said damage was above 50%. The United States Department of Agriculture said prolonged heat and lack of precipitation were seriously affecting corn, soybeans, fruit, and vegetables, and that entity ministries estimated agricultural losses at close to $176 million.

A familiar drought pattern now hurts food output and prices

Bosnia’s own climate policy records say drought has long been one of the country’s biggest threats, and they note that severe dry years have caused large grain and vegetable losses before. A drought management report also describes major crop damage in past extreme dry periods, including very broad agricultural losses during earlier drought years. That history does not erase the need for hard numbers this season, but it does show that the current crisis is not a surprise to farmers.

The bigger issue for readers is simple: when corn fails, the pain spreads fast. Farmers lose feed for livestock, rural incomes fall, and food costs can rise later in the year. Reuters noted that the wider Balkans heat wave has also hit nearby countries, which makes Bosnia part of a regional weather shock rather than an isolated event. Still, the strongest evidence here remains local testimony, field reporting, and the USDA’s broad damage warning, not a final Bosnia-wide corn audit.

That gap matters because most of the public claims come from farmers, association leaders, and news crews on the ground. There is no single unified official corn-loss figure in the research package, and the available numbers are mostly local estimates. Even so, the evidence clearly shows a serious harvest disaster in northeast Bosnia, where heat, dry soil, and withered plants left many growers staring at fields that could no longer recover.