An ongoing project to reconstruct and upgrade the agricultural road linking the villages of Kuqan,  Bujqës, Jagodinë, Murriqan and Thanë is designed to help boost agricultural and rural development in the central district of Elbasan. In completely degraded conditions and offering no safety standards, the road segment seriously hampered transport of the locally-grown produce and provided no access of local farmers and residents to market.

Prime Minister Edi Rama today inspected the works to upgrade this section which is expected to transform entire area into a true agro-tourism destination.

“The new road will ease access of local farmers to transport their locally-grown products to the collection-centre warehouses in Lushnje. In two months only, the gross income from the cabbage production alone is estimated over 2 million dollars and the entire quantity is bound for export mainly to the neighbouring countries, but also to the EU member states. The new road will provide local farmers access to bigger local markets and we are looking forward to seeing production double next year,” said Taulant Balla, member of parliament representing Elbasan district.

In a conversation with local farmers, the Premier suggested that farmers join their forces in order to establish private-run collective farms instead of fragmented and individually-run farms as a way to improve their household economy and increase income. “We are removing and will ultimately remove all those scandalous roadside stands. Therefore, I would like to invite everyone of you to come together and join forces, not in the way you did in previous cooperatives where everybody used to work while the products were collected by the state, but form new collective farms with every farmer working and benefit what is he entitled to. So that, you all decide what and how to grow and you can then together sell your products,” the Premier said.