TIRANA, Nov. 17 – With only more than one month to go before 2010 ends, it remains unclear whether the ministry will execute 100 percent of its budget so that funds are not wasted considering the poor performance during the first nine months of this year.
The Agriculture, Food and Consumer Protection Ministry says it implemented only 54 percent of the budget projected on development projects during the first nine months of this year. In a report published on the monitoring of its budget, the ministry says it had executed only 2.9 billion lek (30 million dollars) during the first nine months of this year, slightly more than half of the total 5.4 billion lek under the reviewed 2010 budget.
The majority of the funds in the first three quarters of this year, 31 percent, worth 901 million lek, went to rural development supporting agricultural and farm products.
Second came food safety and consumer protection with some 30 percent or 875 million lek.
“Irrigation and drainage infrastructure” received 28 percent or 823 million lek of the total disbursed funds in the January-September period. The remaining funds were spent on projects on planning, management of agriculture land and counselling.
Agriculture, food and consumer protection projects continue being one of the least funded although considered a priority. Finance Ministry data show the 2010 budget on the agriculture ministry was cut to 0.41 percent of the GDP to 5.05 billion lek in mid-2010, down from 0.59 percent of the GDP in the previously approved budget.
The 2011 draft budget on the Agriculture Ministry foresees a total of 6.8 billion lek or 0.51 percent of the GDP. Expenditure for this ministry in 2011 has increased by 1.8 billion lek compared to the 2010 revised budget.
Government expects the GDP on this vital sector of the Albanian economy to climb to 0.63 percent of the GDP only by 2013.
Agriculture
The agriculture sector, employing the majority of people in rural areas where all people are considered self-employed because of possessing land, grew by 4.8 percent year-on-year and 1 percent compared to the first quarter of this year, according to the Institute of Statistics.
Agriculture continues to be one of the main sectors of the economy, generating about 18.5% of Gross domestic product (in 2008) and 48.3% of total employment. Around 500,000 people work in agriculture, of whom 55% full time and 45% part time. Labour productivity in agriculture is only 30% of labour productivity in the rest of the Albanian economy and 20% of the EU labour productivity in agriculture. More than 50% of the total population live in the rural areas where agriculture is the main economic activity, said the European Commission in its latest report.
