Agriculture and rural development. The Parties shall cooperate to promote agricultural and rural development, in particular through progressive convergence of policies and legislation.
Agriculture and rural development. 1. The Parties agree to encourage cooperation in agriculture and rural development.
2. Areas in which cooperative activities could be considered include, but are not limited to, agricultural and rural development policy, geographical indications, diversification and restructuring of agricultural sectors and sustainable agriculture.
Agriculture and rural development. The Parties agree to develop cooperation on agriculture and rural development. Areas of cooperation that can be further developed among others are:
(a) agricultural policy and international and agricultural outlook in general;
(b) the possibilities for removing barriers to trade in crops, livestock, and their products;
(c) development policy in rural areas;
(d) quality policy for crops, and livestock, and Protected Geographical Indications;
(e) market development and the promotion of international trade relations;
(f) development of sustainable agriculture.
Agriculture and rural development. The fact that the majority of the population lives in rural areas and its main revenues come from agriculture-related activities, makes agriculture a very significant sector for the economy of the programme area. Though still very high, the weight of agricultural production in the overall economy has had a diminishing trend over the last decade. Some key factors that have influenced the decline of agriculture production are; low productivity due to its organisation based on fragmented small-scale family farming (especially in the Kosovan part); emigration or internal migration of the rural population towards urban areas; low investments on supporting infrastructure, limited access to markets, hard natural conditions and the prevalence of mountain areas etc. Agricultural products on both sides of the programme area are dominated by typical and traditional food: fruits and vegetables such as beans, potatoes, onions; as well as wines and liquors, recognized as highly specific of the region; dairy and meat products (particularly sheep’s cheese and lamb meat in the Xxxxx Mountains). These traditional products, if properly branded and marketed, could contribute to strengthening the identity and fostering the economic development of the area. Some branded traditional local food products could also play a role in tourism development. Sheep breeding is increasing and becoming the dominant activity in the mountain areas at both sides of the border where other types of agricultural production are less favoured by geography and climate. Harvesting and processing of wild products (forest fruits, mushrooms and medicinal herbs) is also developing in these areas. Production there is often oriented to self consumption and stockbreeding. A significant part of Kosovo’s production from the South Economic Region is also traded on to the Albanian side of the border, mainly to the Kukës region. A share of meat products, mainly lamb, is also exported. The management and preservation of the pastures is a major economic and environmental concern. Forestry is also an important activity in these mountainous areas. The cultivable land in the programme area of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia includes 375,30618 ha in which Polog region covers 44%, North East 39% and Skopje region 16.7%. The total arable area is 158,149 ha where the North East region dominate with 50.4%, Polog region with 26.5% and Skopje region with 23%. Thanks to fertile soil and rich water resources Polog va...
Agriculture and rural development. The Agricultural Sector aims at contributing to the national goals to improve the levels of food security at both households level and nationally and to create employment opportunities in order to provide a secure foundation for sustainable and equitable growth throughout the economy. To ensure the long-term sustainability of interventions with regards to environment and socio-economic sustainability, implementation of NDP2 will be guided by, amongst others, the following principles: • reinforce collaboration, cooperation and coordination linkages, which include stakeholder involvement and participation in the planning, implementation and monitoring processes; • interventions (projects, programmes and schemes) will be demand-driven and as much as possible market oriented; and • comparative advantage of production will form the basic principle upon which the promotion of any commercial agricultural enterprise rests. The immediate objectives of the sector are to: • enhance agricultural production at national and household level in a sustainable manner; • raise the volume and gross value of agricultural exports and reduce the volume and value of agricultural imports where economically viable; • promote complementary on- and off-farm livelihood opportunities; and • maximise the potential value added within the country to national agricultural output.
Agriculture and rural development. The Recipient has designated the entities responsible (supervision and implementation – maîtrise d’ouvrage et maîtrise d’œuvre) for the execution of the various programs of the action plan of the Recipient’s Rural Development Strategy;
Agriculture and rural development. The programming area is relatively abundant with agricultural land, and the agricultural sector employs quite high number of popula- tion. On the other side – the percentage of agricultural production in the overall GDP is low which indicates serious problems in the sector. The main problems facing the sector are small size of farms and average parcels, ageing farm holders, the low education level of the farm population, the low productivity and value added, the high proportion of part-time farmers, the unorganized marketing of farm products and the low level of managerial knowledge among farmers. There are also insufficient linkages between the food industry and the tourism sector preventing the establishment of clusters or vertical links which would generate recognizable agricultural brands.
