Leasing state-owned farmland in Republika Srpska: procedure, duration and duties

Municipalities and cities lease out state-owned agricultural land in Republika Srpska, including land with existing plantings, through a public notice. This concerns farmers, sole traders and companies that need land for fields, orchards, vineyards or pasture. The land stays the property of the Republic, and the mayor of the municipality or city signs the lease contract with the chosen bidder.

In short

• State land is leased to individuals and legal entities, and only for agricultural production (Law on Agricultural Land, Articles 55 and 56).
• The lease is awarded through a public notice, either by written offers or by oral public bidding (Article 59).
• A lease lasts up to 25 years for orchards, vineyards and other perennial plantings, and 8 to 12 years for other uses (Article 58).
• Subletting is forbidden and is a ground for terminating the contract (Articles 56 and 64).
• Using state land without a legal basis is a misdemeanour. The fine is 400 to 2,000 KM for an individual, 1,500 to 7,500 KM for a sole trader and 3,000 to 15,000 KM for a company (Articles 55, 74 and 75).
• Rent is split equally: 50% goes to the Republic's budget and 50% to the budget of the municipality or city (Article 62).

Who it applies to

Anyone who wants to lease state land: a family farm, a sole trader, a company or a cooperative. The minister sets the general conditions and procedure in a rulebook (Article 59), and the assembly sets the conditions for each plot in the notice. Always check the exact conditions in the notice itself.

What to do

1. Watch the notices of the municipality or city where the land is. The City of Trebinje publishes them on its website under "Javni oglasi" (public notices), as PDF documents in Cyrillic. The latest notice on that page for state land was published on 3 April 2025: oral public bidding for 17.5662 ha in the cadastral municipalities of Dračevo (7.7242 ha) and Ljubomir (9.842 ha), with bidding on 8 and 9 April 2025.
2. Check what is on offer. The municipal or city assembly adopts an annual programme for the use of state land, with the Ministry's consent, by the end of March of the current year. The programme lists the land planned for lease, including pasture (Article 54).
3. The assembly decides on the notice and its conditions, with the prior consent of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management (Article 59).
4. Submit your offer or take part in the bidding, with the documents the notice asks for.
5. The assembly chooses the best bidder, again with the Ministry's consent. The mayor of the municipality or city then signs the lease contract with you (Article 60).
6. The contract must state the cadastre data, the duration, the amount and payment date of the rent, a description and the value of buildings and plantings, the amortisation period of the plantings, your rights and duties, the permitted use, and the grounds for termination and for the end of the contract (Article 61).
7. Use the land only as the contract allows. You may not sublet it, and you may not let others use it as payment for services such as ploughing, fertilising or crop protection (Articles 56 and 64).

Deadlines and amounts

• Duration: up to 25 years if you plant orchards or vineyards. If plantings already exist, the lease lasts until they are amortised, at most 25 years. For other uses it lasts 8 to 12 years.
• Rent: the amount and payment date are set in the notice and the contract. The law does not set a per-hectare amount. Example: in the City of Trebinje notice of 3 April 2025 the starting rent by land class is 100 KM per hectare per year for class I, 90 KM for II, 80 KM for III, 70 KM for IV, 60 KM for V and 40 KM for classes VI to VIII. The older 2022 notices for meadows and pastures in the cadastral municipalities of Čičevo 2 and Dračevo used the same starting prices (80 to 100 KM per hectare). These are starting prices, and the final rent is set by the bidding.
• Renewal: the contract can be renewed for the same period if you apply to the municipality or city and have met your obligations (Article 63, paragraph 5).

Duties and ending the lease

• Use the land as a good farmer would and only for the purpose stated in the contract (Article 64).
• The lessor may terminate the contract if you do not pay rent, do not use the land as a good farmer would, farm against the contract, sublet, carry out major works or change the type of use without approval, act against nature protection rules, or use the land for non-agricultural purposes (Article 64).
• If perennial plantings were already on the land and their value drops during the lease through your fault, you pay compensation for the lost value. If you remove them without the lessor's consent, you pay their value at the date the contract was signed (Article 57).
• If the lease ends through your fault or at your request, you are not entitled to compensation for the unamortised value of the plantings (Article 65).
• After the lease ends you have six months to take away equipment and structures you built, or to claim compensation for equipment that cannot be moved and for plantings, if you set them up with the lessor's consent. Plantings and buildings made without approval stay with the lessor without payment (Article 66).
• If the contract ends because the land is no longer agricultural, or because you used it against the contract or the law, you hand the land over to the Ministry, not to the municipality, within six months of the end of the contract (Article 63, paragraphs 3 and 4).

Where to go

• City of Trebinje, public notices: trebinje.rs.ba. For other municipalities, check their notice boards and websites.
• Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of Republika Srpska (Ministarstvo poljoprivrede, šumarstva i vodoprivrede), which gives consent to notices and to the choice of tenant.

Note: this text describes the consolidated law with amendments up to Službeni glasnik RS no. 106/2022. The procedure is now governed by the Rulebook on the procedure for leasing agricultural land owned by Republika Srpska (Pravilnik o postupku davanja u zakup poljoprivrednog zemljišta u svojini Republike Srpske, Službeni glasnik RS nos. 83/25 and 27/26). The earlier rulebook (Službeni glasnik RS nos. 47/12, 65/15, 45/16 and 115/18), cited in the City of Trebinje notices of 2022 and 2025, is no longer in force.

Laws and sources

• Law on Agricultural Land (Zakon o poljoprivrednom zemljištu, Službeni glasnik RS nos. 93/2006, 86/2007, 14/2010, 5/2012, 58/2019, 119/2021 and 106/2022), Articles 54 to 67 and 74 to 75, consolidated text of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management
• Rulebook on the procedure for leasing agricultural land owned by Republika Srpska (Službeni glasnik RS nos. 83/25 and 27/26)
• City of Trebinje notice for leasing state-owned agricultural land, 3 April 2025
• Public notices of the City of Trebinje