On 26.02.2019 the 4th session of the NCEU-MK WG1 – Agriculture and Rural Development, took place at the Members of Parliament Club in Skopje. The official topic of the session was: FAMILY FARMING: SUSTAINABLE MODEL FOR DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL AREAS. The session was accompanied by a noticeable media attention and attended by more than 50 representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy (hereinafter MAFWE), non-governmental organisations and associations, farmers, entrepreneurs, professors and experts from the country and abroad. The focus was on the development of perspectives in agriculture in Macedonia and in the EU, through modernisation of family agricultural holdings supported by the appropriate legislation, institutional and financial support.
The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Mr Ljupco Nikolovski, opened the session emphasising that the Government undertakes intensive measures to support rural areas, especially through financial support programs that include family farms as an important segment of rural development. The 2018 Direct Support Program was in line with the EU Project that examined the impact of subsidies, and for this year’s program, accurate recommendations were received on what needs to be changed and adapted to the common agricultural policy of the EU.
Mr Vasko Hadzievski, the Co-Chairperson of WG1 and representative of the Association of Agro-economists of the Republic of Macedonia, presented a study conducted on the socio-economic conditions in which family farming is taking place from the perspective of the involvement of family members, the inheritance of the family business, the share of family income from such management and the needs for its continued operation. He emphasised that the agricultural families living on their property and earning from the fruits of their land and goods represent a social group, which is disappearing and is becoming rarer.
Mr Zolt Cerge, the Slovak Expert from the chairmanship of Young Farmers in Slovakia, began his address by presenting data on the state of agriculture in Slovakia, where 75% of agriculture land is private property, and 25% remains state owned. He stressed that in Slovakia, domestic food production meets 40% of the domestic market needs, due to cheaper import products that are often of a debatable quality, as is the case with milk. The Slovak Agriculture is currently at a pivotal point, where it need to adapt to changing conditions at the local level, as well as to requirements within the EU. Mr Cerge pointed out the Slovak Government is implementing regulations and measures to identified and support young farmers. The measures are directed to farmers who are under 40 years old and have agricultural education. The Government is providing grants of 50,000 euros and, for small farms and businesses grants of 15,000 euros for family traditional farms, with a time limit of up to 5 years.
Ms Vaska Mojsovska, the President of the National Farmers Federation spoke of the need to preserve domestic agricultural production. To do this, it is crucial to motivate young people to stay in the village and to continue the tradition of family farming which in some households has been passed from generation to generation for a very long time. She stressed the importance of education and the role it plays in modernising, by bringing new technologies in the agricultural process, therefore rendering family farming more efficient than ever. According to their analyses, agriculture contributes a total 12% of the national GDP of Macedonia. Some 180,000 families exist from this activity, and 45% of the population lives in the countryside. However, she pointed out that one of the persisting problems Macedonian farmers have is product placement.
Ms Biljana Petrovska Mitrevska, NCEU Expert of WG1, explaining the draft recommendations from the session, emphasised that the starting point was the preservation of small family agricultural production as a pillar of the rural development. A number of institutions have been consulted in the preparations and the Experts also have taken into account the FAO recommendations for the current decade of small farms, as well as the guidelines of EU Regulation 1305/2013.