An Agricultural Strategy for Albania

Download or read book An Agricultural Strategy for Albania written by World Bank and published by Washington, D.C., U.S.A. : World Bank. This book was released on 1992 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agriculture is, by far, the Albanian economy's most important sector in terms of value added and employment. During the political interregnum from July 1991 to March 1992 the sector was severely affected by input and foreign exchange shortages, social upheavals linked to the privatization of cooperative land and assets throughout the country, and disruptions caused by the absence of alternative distribution and allocation mechanisms to replace the collapsing centrally planned system. Social and economic chaos led to rapidly falling living standards for the vast majority of the population, especially in poor rural areas. Agricultural surpluses dwindled to almost nothing as Albania's 380,000 new private farmers concentrated on ensuring the subsistence of their families. This volume presents both short-term and medium-term recommendations on actions required to achieve the objectives of restoring food security, providing income and employment for the rural population, contributing to rapid economic recovery and managing the transition from a highly centralized command economy to a market economy in agriculture. The volume also presents a technical assistance program to strengthen government administrative capability during this transition period and supports the implementation of the program of actions. Eleven annexes and a statistical appendix offer detailed information on various aspects of the sector.