Some thirty representatives of different farmer associations have put up tents and displayed banners with their demands. The protesters ask for better protection of domestic production with higher subsidies and for imposing tariff duties on agricultural imports from neighbouring countries.
The head of the Association of Farmers of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ranko Bakic, told a news conference in Sarajevo on Monday that the protesters would continue with the picketing and that others would join them if the government persisted in ignoring their demands.
Bakic said they requested the establishment of an agriculture ministry at the state level and imposing restrictions on quotas for agricultural imports from neighbouring countries, which implied the suspension of free trade agreements with Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro.
He went on to say that last year's imports of agricultural products exceeded one billion euros.
He accused the current authorities of conducting an agricultural policy which he said was pushing the farm sector into a disaster and threatening the livelihood of 60 percent of the country's population.
Some protesters on Monday mounted blockades at the southern border crossing of Doljani on the border with Croatia.
Bosnia's Auto Club has reported that traffic at other border crossings between Bosnia and Croatia is unobstructed.