Agricultural and rural development are central to Albania’s and Macedonia’s economies. The Albanian agricultural sector represents one of the main sectors of Albania’s economy, contributing more than one fifth (21 percent) of the GDP (approx. 7 billion Euro in 2006). In Macedonia approximately 100,000 people are engaged in agriculture (including enterprise employees and full-time farmers) and there is an additional 20,000 part-time farmers and a substantial number seasonal employees, particularly in the fruits and vegetables sector.

Eighty percent of imported fruits and vegetables in Albania are those that the country can easily produce locally (such as tomatoes, potatoes, apples, cherries, etc.). Therefore, there is tremendous potential of increasing local production of fruits and vegetables to substitute the supply of imports. In both countries there are several key factors hampering agricultural development, such as lack of alternative (off-farm) employment/income generation opportunities, the small size of farms and their fragmentation, outdated crop production, weak horizontal and vertical integration between stakeholders, weak support services such as market information, credit, research/extension, support policies; weak adoption of food quality and safety standards (ISO, HACCP, GMP) and low attention to environmental concerns, etc.

SNV’s contribution

Integrated Local Development
Lagging rural and economic development in rural areas hold a high level of priority in the EU accession process. In addition, in order for agriculture value chains to be equitable, profitable and sustainable their development must be linked with overall rural and economic development. Therefore, SNV will work to build linkages between market development and value chain initiatives in agriculture and broader rural development planning and implementation.

Enabling Environment
Two key policy issues related to agriculture that must be addressed are: (1) property rights and (2) government financial support to the sector (direct to farmers and in support of sector growth). SNV will work through rural development strategy processes and with farmers, businesses, and local governments to advocate for increases in government financial support for agriculture and clarity in property rights.

Equitable, Profitable, and Sustainable Value Chains
Given that farming production in both countries is dominated by small farms, value chain governance and empowerment of producers to enable them to gain more value from their products will be critical. In addition, value chain work (in particular in Albania) will require building linkages to enable the replacement of imported products with locally-produced ones. Improving production technology and ensuring appropriate certification and standards will also be critical.

Pro-Active and Strong
Institutions Producers will need to organize in order to meet the demands of the market through improved quality and quantity. They will also have to be organised if they are to benefit from value generated in improved value chains and to advocate for policy change and government financial support. Therefore, bringing producers together and building their awareness of the importance of organizing will be one of the initial areas of focus of the strategies. Once organised, these groups will need to build their capacity in negotiation, advocacy, production technologies, quality standards, marketing, financial management and other areas. SNV will support this capacity development.

Gender
Women carry out much of the production in agriculture but receive little of the direct benefit. Therefore, women must be included in producer groups and must gain access to other levels of the value chain besides production. SNV will work with producer groups to ensure female participation and will support initiatives to link women with job opportunities beyond production.

SNV will look out for partnerships with other organizations such as : Ministries of Agriculture, GTZ, SIDA, FAO, EU, etc