TIRANA, September 17/ATA/ Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Anila Denaj told the farmers during a meeting she held in the Northern region of Malesia e Madhe that, “In Shkodra and throughout the northern region of the country, there is an unexploited potential and therefore there is required a lot of work to exploit all the potential that agriculture and the rural economy have here.”
“70% of the products in this region go from the farm to tourism and households, and 83% of these products are organic. This makes Albanian cuisine a tourist attraction and in the future the foreign visitors will not only come for the coast, but also for the food”, said Denaj.
Secondly, she continued, 51% of the citizens here are farm owners under the age of 45, most of them.
“I am aware of the absence of the labor force because it does not only happen to the agricultural sector. But, we must understand that the farm workers must be paid, not in the black, because the social insurance scheme for farmers is very low, but they must be paid decently, as long as the season lasts. If the farm workers are not paid well and are not in the social insurance scheme, their incentive falls”, emphasized Denaj.
The minister drew attention to the power and important role of women in the rural economy.
“60% of all the power in any function, in the field, processing, production is the woman”, said Denaj.
The minister appealed to farmers to cooperate for the expansion of the union for economy and quality, through contracts that guarantee increased competitiveness of production, use of advanced technologies, more benefits of subsidies and economic income. /k.s/p.s./
