The six-year Agricultural Growth and Rural Development program focuses on increasing agricultural productivity, marketability, and responsiveness to markets and will enhance the sustainability and competiveness of targeted Kosovo agribusinesses in domestic and export markets.  

KEY ACTIVITIES

Improving Collaboration among Critical Value Chain Participants
The program works with strategic partners to embed the provision of inputs, such as improved seed and plant materals, feritilizer, and plant protection products. It also provides access to modern equipment and technical services that promote the adoption of new technologies for the services offered to contract growers. In these ways, strategic partners will increasingly drive the agriculture economy in Kosovo. 

The program works with top commercial fruit value chains (apples, pears, sour cherry, and table grape); berries (raspberry, blueberry, and strawberry); vegetables (pepper, tomato, gherkin, lettuce, and asparagus); cutlivated medicinal and aromatic plants; and the dairy sector, promoting fluid milk sales in Kosovo. 

Scaling Up the Adoption of Crops and Technologies
Through work with strategic partners. the program embedded provision of inputs (improved seed and plant materials, fertilizer, and plant protection products), access to modern equipment, as well as technical services promoting the adoption of new technologies, into the services they offer to contract growers. In this way strategic partners, will increasingly drive the agricultural economy in Kosovo. 

The Program works with top fruit value chains (apples, pears, sour cherry, and table grape); soft fruits (raspberry, blueberry, strawberry); vegetables (pepper, tomato, gherkin, lettuce and asparagus); cultivated medicinal and aromatic plants and in the dairy sector, promoting fluid milk sales in Kosovo.

Linking Products to Markets
The program works to scale up supply contracting between producers and aggregators, instituting long-term supply contracts with local supermarkets and the hospitality sector. The integration of more actors, particularly youth, into distribution services will also greatly assist in linking production to markets. The improvement of product labeling and packaging and the promotion events of production events will improve public perception of, and ultimately increase demand for, agricultural products produced in Kosovo. 

Addressing Food Safety and Quality Issues
The approach to improving food safety and the adoption of quality standards focuses on four distinct levels: 1) raising public awareness of food safety and quality standards; 2) building local capacity and the infrastructure necessary to advise and audit farmers and agribusinesses for food safety and quality certification; 3) establishing local certification bodies (or local branches of certification bodies based in the EU); and 4) assisting Strategic Partners in obtaining quality certificatio
 

Effectively Utilize the Institute of International Finance

USAID provides additional support in the form of grants and subcontracts to achieve two main objectives: a) support strategic partners to become the primary drivers of agricultural growth; b) attract more women, youth, and minorities into the agricultural sector by helping them initiate or expand agribusiness activities that can be linked to strategic partners market requirements. 

In August 2018, the Ministry of Agriculture (MAFRD) and USAID signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide 3 million euros in grants through AGRO for scaling up blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, and medical and aromatic plant value chains; and increasing the crop area, sales generated, and the number of full time equivalent jobs in the sector.  Additionally, by participating in the selection, award, and monitoring of these grants, this activity will increase the capacity of MAFRD in implementing their own grants programs and improve the effectiveness of their grantee selection.

RESULTS TO DATE

• 5175 new jobs created
• 28 percent of participants are women
• 4,004 hectares under new technologies  
• $147.6M total in domestic and export sales

Project Duration:        March 2015 - February 2021

Partners:                        Tetra Tech ARD.

Contact:                          Besa Ilazi