Out of harvests, Kosovo provides about 60 per cent of bread needs

According to preliminary data, some 7,000 hectares of land have been cultivated with wheat, while the total number of white cereals has been planted 75 thousand acres [75 thousand ha].
Jusuf Cikaqi, chairman of the Commission for Monitoring the Harvesting Campaign under the Ministry of Agriculture, tells Radio Free Europe that according to the first data, the average wheat productivity for this year is between 3,500 and 4,500kg per hectares, depending on the parcels and the region.

In Kosovo, according to a report, it turns out 205kg of wheat is needed per head. If we calculate it with the total number of residents in the Republic of Kosovo, then it turns out that up to 410m tonnes of grain is needed. And with this situation, we think that from 60 to 70 percent will be met by the needs of citizens with products of wheat”, Cikaqi said.

By contrast, last year from cultivated surfaces, Kosovo has managed to obtain over 350,000 tonnes of wheat.

However, according to reports from the grain producers ' association, this year there have been about 14,000 acres [4,000 ha] of soil less cultivated by wheat, which, according to them, is about 55 percent of the population.

The chairman of the Gruri Agriculture Association, Pal Djurovic, for Radio Free Europe, shows that the reason for reducing the wheat-growing surface is the very low price on the Kosovo market.

He says that given the fact that Kosovo imports the first content of this product, but even wheat farmers do not have much profit or financial profit from cultivating this culture.

Speaking of the quality of the wheat, Djurovic, meanwhile, expresses concern that Kosovo consistently tends to reduce the amount of wheat produced.

“The wheat quality is relatively good, productivity behaves around 4 tonnes per hectares, which means that we are not satisfied because when productivity falls below 5 tonnes, then it is hardly covered by the manufacturer's expenses”, he said.

In recent years, however, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has been able to encourage farmers to plant larger wheat fields.
By 2015, the ministry has subsidised wheat growers with 150 euros per hectares.
Djupaj considers the amount of subsidies sufficient for farmers, but disagrees with the required criteria.

“Criter to earn this amount of money is for the farmer to have at least two hectares planted with wheat, which means that half of the farmers remain out of subsidies because the farmers' surfaces are 50-60 gold. So the rest of them have to rent, which is not safe every year for”, Djurovic says.
The overall area in Kosovo is over 10,908 square km, while 53 per cent of the land is agricultural. Meanwhile, of 1.9 million people, 61 percent of them live in rural areas.

Despite that, Kosovo continues to import large amounts of wheat and flour from different countries in the region. The price for one kilogram of wheat produced in Kosovo, according to millers' associations, costs from 0.10 to 0.14 cents, while wheat imported from countries in the region is sold from 0.16 to 0.11 cents. /Rel