Content area
Full Text
Abstract
Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAP) sector is one of the most important agri-food subsectors in terms of income for rural households in mountainous areas and one of the subsectors where Albania has been traditionally competitive in world markets. Thereby, this sector has received growing attention from the government and donor community. This paper aims at analyzing the MAPs sector, with special focus on governmental support policies. The study describes support policies related to MAPs, based on secondary information including data retrieved from the database of the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency. In addition, the paper provides insight from farmers prospective regarding support policies based on a structured farm survey which was subject to descriptive statistical analysis.
Keywords: Aromatic plants, subsidies, policies, rural economy, market.
1.Introduction
MAPs collection and cultivation are important activities and sources of income for a large number of rural households in Albania. Estimates from previous studies show that a range of 75,000 and 100,000 people benefit from this sector [3].
The income, from the collection of medicinal and aromatic plants account for 35% of income for rural households in northern Albania [4]. Thus MAPs represents the most important forestry sub-sector in terms of involvement of members of mountainous areas communities and a major income source for their households. MAPs are found throughout the country but some regions are more widespread and they have organized collection, most notably Malesi e Madhe (Shkoder), which has been also targeted by our study.
Albania has been a world player in the supply of MAPs, especially in the case of sage which is the main cultivated MAP in Albania. More than 95% of all MAPs collected are exported. Most Albanian MAPs are exported mainly to the EU and US [2]. Supply of wild MAPs is diminishing, due to damaged MAPs resources and a reduced labor force in mountainous areas. This declining trend in wild MAP collection is compensated by the growing importance of cultivation, which has been stimulated by government subsidy schemes [2]. The scheme of planting in block of medicinal and aromatic plants like sage, Lavender, thymus oregano, has been part of the governmental support schemes as early as in 2012.
Despite the importance of the sector, and of the support schemes (in terms...