FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Since the beginning of the last decade, agriculture has held steady growth rates, but in the last two years the largest sector of the economy has entered a downward trend.
Official INSTAT data show that, in the third quarter of this year, production in the agricultural sector fell by 0.4%, which was the biggest drop since the fourth quarter of 2021 where bad weather damaged the season's production.
Last year, agriculture remained stagnant, as the country's economy grew by 4.86%. This year, the expectations are that the GDP of the country will expand by about 3.7 percent, but for the 9th month, the sector shows a further decline.
The negative performance seems to be coming from livestock. The number of livestock heads has decreased by about 20 percent in the last two years. Livestock is the main branch of agriculture, after production in fields, greenhouses and orchards.
On the other hand, the government predicts an increase in agricultural production in 2024 by 2.8% at a time when budget funds have been cut.
In the 2024 budget, the agriculture sector will receive at least 9% less funding than this year's plan, finalized in the normative act for amending the 2023 budget. The data from the tables accompanying the 2024 budget show that the total funds for the Ministry of Agriculture will be 14.1 billion ALL in 2024, from 15.6 billion ALL this year.
There have been big cuts in the funds allocated to farmers and rural development. The support measures for agricultural production and rural development will be 7.1 billion ALL, from 10 billion ALL this year with a 28% reduction, or about 25 million euros.
This decrease is a big blow, at a time when the European Union has also blocked funds from the IPARD scheme due to the corrupt affairs it has found with the allocation of funds in our country.
In contrast, funds for planning and management have increased by 22% and those for food security by 36%.
The countryside has been emptied by emigration and internal movements, the Ministry of Agriculture expects to increase the number of employees in this sector to 568,000 employees in 2026, from 565,954 last year. Most of the employees in the sector are without salary, since 80 thousand farmers in the whole country themselves pay insurance.
Only Albania stands out as a country in the Region with a low level of agricultural support for agriculture, which at the same time is the sector with the largest weight in GDP with about 19% of it./Monitor
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