Farmers in Korçë seek state intervention to insure agricultural produce

In southeastern Albania, one of agriculture’s biggest challenges remains the damage to produce caused by weather conditions, hail, and flooding.

The consequences have been clearly felt in recent years: in Devoll, major damage to apple production has been recorded due to hail; in Dvoran, cherry production has been hit by low temperatures; while in the Maliq plain, hundreds of hectares of land have ended up under water.

Faced with this situation, farmers in the southeast raise the concern that they are unable to insure their produce, as private companies consider these lands high-risk and refuse to cover them. For this reason, they are calling for cooperation between the government and private companies so that agricultural produce can be insured.

Ferdinand Ali, a superpotential farmer, says the difficulty is great because insurance companies only take responsibility for hail-related cases, while farmers are also facing other natural disasters and flowering, which, according to him, has caused considerable damage in recent years. He says several meetings have been held with companies and help has been requested, but natural disasters are increasing and the damage is becoming colossal. According to him, farmers are asking the state to assume the risk through insurance or special schemes. He adds that at the last meeting with the minister, they were promised that a draft law is being prepared that would make insurance for agricultural products mandatory, with one part supported by the state and one part by the farmers themselves.

The same position is shared by Vullent Gjolla, Director of the Agricultural Extension Directorate in Korçë, who believes the government should look at how countries in the region handle such cases in insuring farmers’ production.

Gjolla explains that concrete examples for managing these situations should be examined, regardless of the funds available. According to him, there has been thought of finding a solution through self-initiative and by pooling funds from farmers across the country. He proposes that, through a ministry budget, an initial fund be created and that all farmers in Albania, perhaps even on a mandatory basis, be included in creating an association with a special fund, where the main part of the premium would be covered by the Ministry of Agriculture and the rest by the farmers themselves. According to him, such a mechanism, by identifying where there would be significant damage, even if only in terms of farmers’ expenses, would greatly ease the consequences of natural disasters.

Farmers are asking that agricultural insurance not remain merely at the level of a promise, but be turned into a real support instrument for every family living on income from the land. At a time when climate change is causing ever greater damage, they see a joint scheme between the state, insurance companies, and farmers as the only way to protect production and ensure the continuity of agriculture in the southeast of the country.