Kosovo's wheat crop half

According to the official figures of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Development in 2012, more than 22,000 acres [12,000 ha] of grain were planted in 2017, and this area dropped to 8,000 acres [80 thousand ha].

Meanwhile, last year, 74 thousand hectares of land have been cultivated in wheat culture. During this year, however, only 50,000 acres [50,000 ha] of wheat surfaces have been planted.

In a simple estimate that in eight years (2012-2019) Kosovo's grain-planted area is halved or is 52,000 hectares less.

Agriculture experts and representatives of farmers in Kosovo have repeatedly warned that the contraction of agricultural land is taking place because of a change in destination, using agricultural land for construction activity.

This, they say, will result in future consequences and lack of basic agricultural products.

Jusuf Cikaqi, director of the Department for Agriculture Policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, points out that in one-year cultures, the area varies year-on-year. He says that the price and demand in the market are among the factors affecting land sowing with one - year culture.

The last year's <x0). The main factors were climate conditions because there was drought in the fall of 2018 and farmers, despite their planning to plant between 75 and 80 thousand acres [75 and 80 thousand ha], have failed to plant crops because of drought. Even this amount of wheat that has been sown and harvested now is being planted in December after the Ottoman” deadline, Cikaqi points out for Radio Free Europe.

But, the chairman of the Agriculture Union Federation, Tahir Tahiri, in a conversation for Radio Free Europe says some of the reasons for reducing grain-planted space are the many constructions in agricultural lands, then the non-adequate policies for development of the agriculture sector, migration and inadequate price of grain for farmers.

The first “This lack of perspective has led to a large number of young people who were especially involved in agriculture being migrated outside Kosovo. The other reason is that wheat products have a terrible irrational competition from import. Gru from the region's countries in Kosovo enters at a cheaper price than local production. Especially from the state of Serbia (before the tax is imposed), after millers in Kosovo have been supplied with wheat from state reserves that are not dedicated to food for people”, Tahiri suggests.

Former Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Idriz Vehapi, meanwhile, says the reason for reducing the surface of wheat-wheated land is presented because of the high price of agricultural mechanization.

“The large cost cost of planting wheat, agricultural mechanism, seeds, waste, all imported and have a high cost. Then I believe that even the price of wheat does not yield much. Then, even state subsidies have to be increased, even though the Government of Kosovo has already moved in this direction, but I believe this will greatly impact. The next reason is presented because of the small surfaces of the earth, where most farmers have small land spaces”, Vehapi says.

Otherwise, to increase the farmers' interest in planting larger wheat fields, the Ministry of Agriculture has been subsidizing farmers from 150 euros annually, while the minimum grain - planted surface must be 2 hectares owned by the farmer.

However, the harvest-winning campaign ended in all of Kosovo's territory a month ago. While officials in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Development claim that this year Kosovo meets up to 50 percent of its wheat food needs, farm representatives estimate that this figure does not reach 30 percent of its needs.

Of these surfaces, total domestic production in recent years, according to official data, has covered up to 60 percent of local consumption needs, and the share has been covered by imports.

In a report by the Ministry of Agriculture, called “Green Export 201818x1>, the resident reportedly produced 127kg of flour in Kosovo per head. The value of wheat productivity in 2017 was 51m euros.