The largest irrigation scheme to the benefit of agriculture in the region, which includes reconstruction of the Thana reservoir, construction and clearing of some 44 kilometres of main canals and some 167 kilometres of secondary inlet canals in order to ensure that water flowed to the tail-end, is heading to completion. The irrigation project will enable every plot of agricultural land to be irrigated with water in the district of Lushnja, known as the breadbasket of Albanian agriculture due its fertile lands.

Prime Minister Edi Rama, accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture Bledi Çuçi, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture Dhimo Kote, visited Cuka canal today, to closely inspect this project with a major impact on development of agriculture in the region.  “This is one of the largest projects of all times ever designed by the Albanian government. There are two rehabilitated irrigation systems to irrigate agricultural lands with water from Thana water catchment. A 44-km long main canal and some 167 kilometres of secondary canals have been reconstruction. Thana lake is the largest man-made water system in the Balkans and this is the largest irrigation project in Albania,” the Minister of Agriculture said.

The once blocked canals due to vegetation and garbage have been rehabilitated, ultimately providing a lasting solution to the irrigation and drainage systems in the area and enabling thousands of hectares of agricultural land to be irrigated. “The country’s agriculture sector won’t develop if a greenhouse is built without the required infrastructure, including irrigation, drainage and the agricultural ring roads. This is a vital infrastructure and I am not telling this to compliment you, but as a farmer and then as a deputy agriculture I am telling the truth that if Albanian agriculture has achieved such results this is because the sector has been regulated and the required infrastructure has been built,” deputy minister Kote said.

Thanks to this irrigation project, every plot of the agricultural land of each local farmer is now irrigated, leading to an increase in production, exports, but also in earnings for the Albanian farmers. PM Rama hailed the project as an investment of strategic importance, even though the news of this project doesn’t make the headline of the traditional and the online media. “The amount of the locally-grown produce making its way to the markets and to the households compared to the imported agricultural products has doubled. In other words, this is something or an accomplishment I am really proud of. Of course, whoever doesn’t know anything about countryside or is informed via the media about this and that and some people who shout, rightly, think that people in our villages suffer from scarcity of bread, lack employment opportunities and they have been abandoned, while not only the daily bread for anyone living in the village is produced here, but national economy is made here indeed,” PM Rama said.

Despite a series of major investment and agricultural development projects, PM Rama noted that a lot remains to be done or many problems remain to be solved, yet any comparison with the situation prevailing five years ago absolutely shows that the transformation has really been like night and day. “This is a second revolution in the sense of expanding the surface of the agricultural land. If we are to make some calculations, although I said that facts are of no value when it comes to sharing them with the public through the media, one should consider the area of agricultural land and the number of greenhouses operating five years ago and hose operating today. This is a revolution in this aspect,” the Premier said.

Speaking about investments in agriculture, PM Rama said Albania ranks first in the region in terms of its capacities to absorb funds made available by the European Union, considering it an epochal step compared to few years ago. “Today we are the first in the region so far regarding the funds absorption, thanks to the fact that with your encouragement and efforts, farmers have begun to figure out the right direction. The state budget fund, combined with the EU funds which have been always available but not absorbed, because Europe provides nothing unless you present a project, represent a record and unmatchable high financing level for agriculture,” the government head noted.