Prime Minister Edi Rama on Friday began a tour of the north-eastern region of Diber with a visit to the newly-built agricultural and livestock market in the town of Shupenze, Bulqize municipality as part of a nationwide open dialogue campaign of meetings with local hard-working people and farmers, who have succeeded in increasing their production and improve quality and marketing of their locally grown produce thanks to the government-funded national agriculture support scheme and well thought out investments as new working spaces of this market.
The national support scheme: As many as 163 local beneficiaries in past 4 years; 23 million lek allocated in funding for local farmers; 194 beneficiaries under excise-free oil scheme of over 20,000 litres of oil.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you very much for this impressive hospitality! I am not going to deliver a speech before you are provided the opportunity to speak so that we engage in a conversation instead of me repeating some issues most likely you have already listened to while watching TV. So anyone wishing to take the floor will be welcomed. In the meantime, thank you again for this warm welcome you extended me.
– I am a farmer and I have purchased a land area of around one hectare. I used to live and work in Italy. I know you well and I know you deliver on your pledges as I have had the chance to meet you when you used to serve as Tirana mayor 10 years ago. I have purchased the agricultural land in question gradually, but the regional Cadastre office hasn’t been operational since the ’90s. I don’t benefit from a single litre of oil. I cultivate potatoes in an area of over 5000 square meters of land and I am told that I should obtain the land ownership certificate. But how am I possibly supposed to obtain such a document when nobody recognizes the land purchase transaction. I wouldn’t be successful without your support.
-I am a herdsman tending a flock of over 300 goats. I have been living and working abroad for 20 years. We have received subsidies, yet we need more support for construction of stables, if possible.
-I am the head of the local beekeeper association. Local beekeepers have been successful also thanks to the local resources. Some government projects on water supply, irrigation and treatment have also helped this sector as honey bees need a dependable source of water year round. Together with the Minister of Agriculture we have been discussing the issue of a new law on beekeeping and you have pledged to deliver on this aspect. In my capacity as the chairman of the beekeepers association, I am urged to ask the question why some have benefited from subsidies, whereas some others not?
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you for your remarks. If you are to ask individuals who do not live here and have nothing to do with this area, but see the Albanians’ lives and economy, the hard work and the countryside via the TV channels and media reports only, he or she would certainly say that Bulqize is home to some modern “slaves” who collect chrome stones stockpiled in some steep hills, because this is actually the reality described on the TV screen.
Unfortunately, TV is increasingly becoming a large source disseminating lies, manipulations, and fabrications to poison the public opinion.
Indeed, these area boasts a total of 1144 hectares planted with corn, 136 hectares planted with vegetables, 160 hectares with potatoes, 34 hectares with beans, 6730 hectares planted with fodder crops, 266 hectares of orchards, 35 hectares of vineyards and a total of 146 754 apple trees, plum and pear trees, grapes, cherries, walnuts and hazelnut trees that occupy a considerable area and where it has been invested and more investments are underway.
Facts and real life in Albania’s countryside are completely different from what is being or is often said by individuals, who don’t live in the villages across the country, and unfortunately what is being said about these areas not only conjures up the idea that the rural areas have been plunged into poverty, people are starving and there are no more people living in the villages to cultivate the land and involve in farming. Such claims also discourage young people from working in the agriculture sector and young people tend to leave rural areas.
As far as your comments are concerned, I think that Bulqize mayor really deserves to be commended.
Someone called for assistance to build stables for animals. I would tell you that everything is in your hand and your cooperation with the local government and relevant local authorities here. All the locally grown fresh produce can become more valuable and can generate more income for the farm households should the agro-processing sector and enterprises in this sector be founded and become operational. Should the products we already saw firsthand at the agricultural market, the ones that are already processed manually and in an artisanal way and also packaged in an artisanal way, now become to be processed in agro-processing plants and be packed in a modern way, quality of all these products will improve significantly. If you would seek to sell your the locally-grown products individually with everyone transporting their products on their own, you can of course do so and you can generate some income, but if you join forces, if the beekeepers join their forces and together with their association’s chairman design a project on a collection and storage warehouse and packaging according to the sort and quality of honey, the end result will be an autochthonous product with special and great food value and definitely high quality honey. This way you will be able to increase your sales as they can sign contracts with potential buyers who collect large quantities, instead of collecting the production traditionally with small jars.
Another issue raised by one of the participants has to do with the agricultural land and the land ownership issues. The European Union funds allocated to Albania, and we have actually succeeded in absorbing more EU funds than any other country in the region, because we have totally altered the way the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (ARDA) works under Frida’s leadership, who has to be credited with this accomplishment, and we can’t use the EU funds to provide financial assistance to farmers and entities that are certainly real ones, yet lacking the due land ownership documents. It is in the same way that the lack of the land ownership deeds actually becomes a reason for refusing funding to individual farmers and agricultural enterprises, including stables and collection and storage centres.
The last thing I would say is that farmers need to focus on growing the high-demand and best-selling products in the market. In a nutshell farmers should stop doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If we want a different result, we need to do something different, should a certain product turn out to be not a best-selling one. This is really important as we happen to watch farmers on TV throwing their apples, onions and others pouring their milk and blaming the state for not supporting them. The state is not there to purchase your products, because we live no longer under that system that used to do so, but the fact is that just a few meters away from the small group of farmers that throw their apples, another larger group is successfully selling and exporting their apples and they live in the same state and country. How can one possibly explain this? This can be explained with the fact that the ones that dump their apples are not willing to acknowledge that the variety of the apple they cultivate is not demanded by the market, whereas the successful ones have heeded the Ministry of Agriculture directives and they have planted other varieties and are now exporting their products successfully.
Second, this can also be explained by the unification, the farmers that join their forces. We won’t be able to meet our sales targets if we don’t join forces, not in producing, but in selling your products. The more you offer up for sale the stronger when negotiating the sale price. How are you possibly able to negotiate when all you offer is just a sack of fresh products you pick from your land and take to the road hoping to sell it on your own? But once it starts raining, it becomes very cold or very hot and you should take your product away as soon as possible, otherwise it will rot. That’s why farmers should join forces and create collection centres. We need the system I already mentioned and fortunately this is what is actually happening in Albania. Farmers across the country are getting together and it doesn’t take 5000 people to join forces, but 50, 70 or 100 people so that they can negotiate and sell their products. This way they would use the same seeds, the same pesticides, the same cultivation processes and offer the same product up for sale, with everyone obtaining what they are entitled to, depending on their individual contribution.
Last but not least, I would like to also focus on agritourism. This sector is a guarantee for success in all remote areas, seemingly not worth trying to do something, because it takes just the wonderful nature and landscape, an inherited private family home, a modest investment to rehabilitate this house or build some rooms to transform it into a guesthouse that would generate sufficient income for your households. You all are blessed with these. Of course, government assistance and support is needed and will be definitely provided to support such projects. The support through the EU-funded programmes is also available to such projects. It takes just designing the project and support will be made available. Again, I am not talking about things that could happen in the future, but I am referring to projects already underway, but more and more such projects should be developed. To this end, I have asked Mayors to show support and strongly promote agritourism projects, because this nature is really a God blessing and its potential needs to be tapped in full. This stunning landscape, the absolutely fresh air and nature beauties will definitely attract a larger number of both local and foreign visitors. I would urge you all to trust this, because this is what is happening in rural areas all over the country and more such investment projects are needed. That’s why more doors need to open, that’s why more beds and more quality services should be made available so that tourism develops in this area too. This is totally possible.
Thank you very much!
