Author: Denis Tahiri
The sector that has employed more Albanians is agriculture, and yet the income from this field is minimal. In addition, their support continues to be incalculable, the more time the institutions that guide development and monitoring policies gain. In Lushnjë, once known as the barn of Albania, the challenges faced by farmers are daily and difficult. Amidst the crisis of where to sell the products but also the problem of providing labor force, many farmers have turned to greenhouses. But for Artur, 63 years of tilling the land requires working arms
"My power is running out, subsidies are minimal, if not non-existent, the technology we use is old. Implementing technology requires a lot of funding, but also a lack of orientation," the farmer tells SINJALIZO.
But the 63-year-old is not alone in the battle to cultivate and reap the benefits of the land. According to INSTAT data, about 34% of employees in Albania are engaged in the agricultural sector. In fact, in 2012, there was an even higher percentage, with about 46% of employees in the entire country.
Farmers are apparently moving towards the cultivation of fruit trees. In 2021, this trend has increased by 4.92%. While in 2021 the production of fruit trees reached 287,210 tons.
But there are also problems in orchards
"The highest level of fruit tree production was reached in the Korça region with 89.753 tons, followed by the Elbasan regions with 39.118 tons and Fier with 33.774 tons. The group of fruit trees with seeds accounts for 45,43% of production, the main weight in this group is occupied by apple production with 85,25%. The Korça region accounts for 66,02% of the total apple production in the country ", concludes INSTAT.
The data shows that apples and olives and olive oil are among the products that have already exceeded the demand of the domestic market, and this overproduction has brought a stalemate.
For the lecturer at the Agricultural University of Tirana, Drini Imami, the reason for this is the support scheme. " The reason why there has been a large increase in production in these sectors has been the support scheme. Many years ago, a lot of money was given to increase the areas, without doing an analysis of how much is needed to meet the internal market demand and if we will have to export what the strategy will be," he says, emphasizing that it is important that the support schemes are based on updated studies to better orient farmers.
Hafuz Domi, fruit culture expert and head of ADAD Malore, says that the fruit culture sector in Albanian agriculture has several main problems, where the problem with overproduction in certain crops started after 2015.
"I have said and always say, the Ministry of Agriculture should have a crisis management department and do an analysis of production and future projections, this does not exist," he says. A concrete example of this situation is the production of olive oil last year. " We did not know where to take it, so there was no analysis that said that in 2022 the production of olive oil would increase and that work had been done to find a market."
The same crisis was repeated for apples. Their abandonment was disappointing. The fruit-growing expert says that Albania can only export apples to the eastern market, as export requires certain conditions. " It requires a minimum quantity of a variety, we do not have it in this, as they are small farms and to have it you have to prepare now, you have to do the packaging certification part, etc.," says Domi, adding that the costs of the Albanian farmer are much higher than in the region and in Europe. " The only country we could export to was Egypt, but it is not exported because there are high taxes. Something was exported through Greek traders, but it did not go as Albanian apples, but as Greek apples," he concludes.
Zef Gjeta, an agricultural specialist, also speaks about the bureaucracy in the process of certifying Albanian agricultural production. " The first happens because Westerners protect themselves, they ask for documents. They themselves, as an administration, easily provide them, while in our country you have to go from one gate to another, from the Directorate of Agriculture to the Chamber of Commerce, from this to that, certificate of origin, ISO, etc. These prevent the Albanian farmer from entering the European market," he says, once again bringing to attention the case of olive oil, which he says is the same in our country, as well as in Italy and Greece. " We are in one region and they package it, sell it at high prices and with high standards, we can't even sell it as a raw material," he says.
Problems of a vital sector
"The purpose of financial support, on the one hand, aims to ease the burden faced by farmers, and on the other hand, support schemes aim to orient farmers towards activities in line with market needs," explains Drini Imami. He adds that the biggest problem facing the agricultural sector today is that it is very underfunded. " There are fewer opportunities to face the challenges of the time, such as Covid and the war in Ukraine, because when you have less support, you have fewer opportunities to face them, and that is why many have abandoned agriculture. Third, the government, by not making sufficient resources available, does not have enough instruments to orient them towards the right solutions," he concludes.
For the pedagogue of the Agricultural University, the biggest problem facing Albanian agriculture is the emptying of the countryside.
" There has always been a trend of moving from the countryside to the city, but in recent years it has been on a large scale. This means that there is no social life in the village anymore, no Services, no jobs," he says, adding that he knows successful farmers who are thinking about moving from the countryside for the aforementioned reasons.
The movement of people from the countryside to the city is already a phenomenon which has been proven for many years in Albania, while the fruit culture expert says that the labor force is already difficult to find.
"In production, there is a shortage of labor despite the fact that the value of the reward has increased, a problem that has emerged in the last 3 years," he says, adding that this is also a result of a low degree of mechanization.
The farmer is not oriented towards investment
Zef Gjeta, an agricultural specialist, says that not only is there no guiding policy in Albania, but even worse, the strategies change from year to year.
" We have a strategy, we have drafted it continuously, 5-year, 7-year, with support from foreigners, but it has never become part of the government. The rural development strategy has been drafted, but these are documents that are only on paper and are not integrated into government policies," he says.
For Mr. Gjeta, another very big problem is land consolidation and the only solution he has is to provide it with the relevant documentation so that when the farmer applies for funds, he has the land documentation. " Without land consolidation, the farmer cannot rent it out or sell it or exchange it with someone in order to increase the area because land consolidation is related to the cultivation of a certain plant, irrigation, etc." he concludes.
In an analysis published in 2022, FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, noted that Albanian farmers receive direct support of only 3 euros per hectare, while 42 euros goes to institutions and entities involved in monitoring agriculture. The data published in Monitor reflects a completely different reality from countries in the region, where in Bosnia and Herzegovina 60 euros go to support the farmer and only 6 euros to administration out of a figure of 66 euros per hectare given in support of Rural Development.
Meanwhile, in Kosovo, 69 euros per hectare go to the farmer and another 54 to the administration. But even though the figures are higher in the region, compared to Europe, our country remains far behind. In the EU, of the 446 euros/hectare given for rural development on average in 2018, 274 euros went to support the farmer.
*For the realization of this article, the Albanian Center for Quality Journalism also addressed the media office at the Ministry of Agriculture to conduct an interview, but did not receive a response from them.
