Agriculture subsidies

TIRANA, March 5- The government presented the new scheme of agriculture subsidies that benefits with $ 10 million total fund only the categories of farmers that plant vines and fruit trees, olives oil producers and animal farmers with subsistent stock. The fund however remains very small for the conditions of Albanian agriculture. Statistics show that agriculture remains the economic sector with the lowest growth rate which contributes to only 20 percent of the GDP. The sector crisis is deeper if we consider that half of the population lives in rural areas where according to World Bank reports poverty is more widespread. This assistance would contribute only $ 25 to each farmer family. An important problem of the agriculture sector remains the lack of crediting. The Finance Minister Bode and Agriculture Minister Gjana were present at the presentation. Bode said that the assistance aims at increasing the cultivated land and that once the property problem start to be solved the market will assist the sector better. The government has also decided to exclude the greenhouses that operate on oil as a fuel form the subsidy scheme. Studies show that the fragmentization of land in parcels according to law 7501 and the crisis of the sector have decreased the amount of arable land.