Disrupted Market Relations in Agriculture in North Macedonia: the COVID-19 Crisis

The Covid19 crisis has stressed the importance of, and need for, a stable and functional food system, able to provide consumers with a continous supply of quality food at affordable prices. The pandemic has also highlightened the role of agricultural producers in the food supply chain, with small farmers being the most vulnerable category. This global crisis has actually deepened the problems faced by farmers, especially those on the verge of sustainability. The purpose of this analysis was to provide an overview of the disrupted links in agriculture, as a result of the Covid19 crisis. A survey was carried out with 91 farmers and in-depth interviews were conducted with selected traders and processors. Farmers assessed that  the crisis negatively affected their economic operations. The critical parts of the supply chain derive from the disrupted link between farmers and traders/processors, lack of field technical support resulting from mobility restrictions, uncertainty in cooperation, lower production quantities, and varying quality of the agricultural products. Availibilty and cost of seasonal workforce was also pronounced as an issue. The dominant family fams small-scale structure and lack of  aggregation in the sector challenged the resilience and effective response to the crisis. From buyers'/processors' perspective, the crisis effect was marked through the disrupted communication with farmers, low awareness of the need for change, and drastic decline in the HORECA channel sales. The agricultural and rural policy is designed to address measures adjusted to the needs of the key actors in the sector. The priority set of measures should support the food supply chain, enhancing farmers' networking and aggregation, and on-farm and off-farm diversification, improved communication, information systems and digitalisation. Improving productivity and competitiveness is still an effective strategy for sustainable operations, greater resilience and risk adaptation in crise

DAMAGE ASSESSMENT IN AGRICULTURE – FLOOD DAMAGES IN PERENNIAL CROPS

Contributing to the already existing vulnerability and risks for the agricultural producers, natural disasters influence the development of agricultural production and in most instances with a negative connotation. Agricultural production is greatly reliant on weather conditions, and is often adversely affected by disasters related to weather and climate circumstances. In August 2016, North Macedonia and especially the region around the capital city of Skopje was heavily hit by floods, causing considerable damage to the agricultural production in this region. This natural disaster is expected to have a prolonged impact and assessing the damage for the perennial crops is important for the farmers, but would also contribute in the evidence based research on the topic. The results presented in this paper are based actual data, collected immediately after the flood. The analysis includes the reported damages in crop production, their structure, area affected, etc. The damage estimations are based on standard valuation methods published in the national Official Gazette. The data set contains information that provide damage assessment, but also gives grounds for compensation of farmers who were most affected. There is an urgent need to mitigate the effects of natural disasters in the agricultural sector, as well as highlight the need of permanent prevention and insurance practices in the sector

WHOLE FARM REVENUE INSURANCE AS A NEW MODEL OF CROP INSURANCE

Agricultural production is a specific area of business that is strongly influenced by natural, climatic, market, financial and institutional factors. These are all hazards not depending on the will of man and his activities, and it is necessary to foresee them and to insure against them. Crop and fruit insurance is the most effective risk management instrument in open field crop production. The aim of this paper is to present a new model of crop insurance which began to apply in 2015 in the United States. Every farm, by its implementation, provides farm’s expected total revenue that may be affected by the operation of both natural and climate risks, and market risks too, which are manifested through fluctuations in market prices. In this way all farm crops are insured against any risks with just one policy. Analyzed farm has experienced revenue loss due to drought, therefore it has indemnity right in the amount of 2,500 €. Premium costs amount to 330 €

NETWORKS IN THE MACEDONIAN ORGANIC PRODUCTION CONTEXT

Economic performance and competiveness of commercial farms, in producing and selling organic products, is often dependent on the structure of networks and the organization of supply chains. Networks play an important role in information dissemination, particularly in the otherwise scarce information flow in rural areas. Informal networks are in most cases a valuable source of social capital and information exchange. The aim of this paper is to understand network and stakeholder position and relations in the information channels among the actors in the supply chain for organic productions, by mapping information diffusion on horizontal level - farmer’s relations with other farmers. A survey on 122 organic farms was carried out in 2018 in the Republic of North Macedonia. The data were processed in UCINET. Mapping social capital structure contributes in identifying key individuals (social capital hubs), that can be activated for information dissemination and ultimately for active mobilization of organic production networks. The findings confirm that farmers with similar production type are more likely to cooperate and share information among each other

Assessing technical efficiency of vegetable farms in North Macedonia

Farm economic performance measuring is important for farm management purposes and for assessing the impact of agricultural policy measures. Efficiency studies enable assessment of farm performance since highly efficient farms are considered to have higher potential for operating in a changing economic and technological environment. The aim of this paper is to assess the technical efficiency of vegetable farms in North Macedonia, utilising Data Envelopment Analysis, as a non-parametric approach estimating the relative efficiency of decision making units producing multiple outputs and using multiple inputs. The analysis is based on Farm Monitoring System data including 75 vegetable farms in 2011 survey. Apart from baseline scenario, additional scenarios include available agricultural policy support in 2011 and 2016. The average technical efficiency of vegetable farms is 0.62 considering constant returns to scale, i.e. 0.71 and 0.75 considering variable returns to scale (in output and input oriented perspective, respectively). With better farm management, technical efficiency score can be improved on average by 25%. Technical efficiency increases slightly with subsidies, on average by 2 to 3%. Analyses based on farm level data, are valuable when estimating the effects of implementation of agricultural policy as well as when creating new policy interventions

Price dispersion in neighboring countries in the Western Balkans - the case of the Macedonian tomato industry

The aim of this paper was to analyze the degree of change in price and co- movement of prices between markets. The distinctiveness of the study is that it introduced a single product (highly perishable product) price relationship analysis between a pair of spatially separated markets in the countries of the Western Balkan. This study attempts to comprehend to what extent the Macedonian domestic market is integrated into the regional markets, as well as to understand the relationship between the spatially separated regional markets. The data refer to the domestic Macedonian market and four different regional markets (Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro), as major importers of Macedonian fresh tomatoes. These countries were part of a common market until the 1990’s and in the past period transited to a market economy. The method used is common time series analysis through unit root test, co-integration test and causality test. The study showed that the Macedonian economy, especially in terms of the tomato industry, is highly vulnerable and dependant on external markets. Future developments do not only depend upon the advances in the country, but also on developments in the export destinations. This also applies to the other concerned countries in the regions. The main finding is that a small country such as Macedonia is absorbed by developments in other countries in the region. This finding is supported by the results of the study that demonstrated a high level of co-integration between the domestic and regional markets

MACEDONIAN AGRICULTURAL CAPITAL MARKET AND SUPPORTING MECHANISMS: AN OVERVIEW

The Macedonian agricultural capital market is not efficient enough, although there have been some improvements due to the established supporting mechanisms. This paper aims to identify current gaps between agricultural financial services’ and mechanisms’ supply and demand on the agricultural capital market. In this regard, literature and other available secondary sources have been reviewed. Additionally, focused discussions with different stakeholders in the agricultural capital market were conducted, including representatives from the capital demand side (farmers and their associations), and supply side (banks, saving houses, and their associations), as well as supporting institutions and intermediaries (government institutions and donor projects that work towards improvement of farmers’ access to finance in the country). Crediting is one of the key drivers of agricultural and rural development. There are other external financial sources that should be considered, which could contribute in improved capital flow to the agricultural sector. The results revealed critical segments in the agricultural capital market based on the mismatches between the supply and demand for capital and supporting mechanisms, and suggest directions for further improvements of this market. The findings may serve as a baseline for future policy settings and enhancement of a more efficient development of the agricultural capital market in the country

The role of rural development funds in EU pre-accession countries: the case of IPARD II

The European Union is a key strategical priority for the pre-accession countries in the Western Balkan and Turkey. The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) assists countries aspiring for EU membership to prepare their institutional and administrative capacities for future compliance in all sectors including agriculture and rural development. Apart from the financing component, the role of IPARD is much broader in preparing the preaccession countries for effective implementation of structural and rural development funds upon accession. This paper aims to provide a comparative cross-country analysis on the IPARD programme 2014-2020 (IPARD II) funding of the current beneficiaries (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey). The main derived indicators include the use of IPARD II funding, measures and absorption rates. IPARD II payments are effectuated in all candidate countries from 2019, while payments started earlier in 2017 in Turkey and in 2018 in North Macedonia. With the prolonged start of the IPARD II programme, significant amount of the available funds remains unused, and the number of implemented measures is still limited. There are noticeable country differences in terms of expenditure among measures, but overall, the largest share of used funds so far is dedicated to investments in physical assets in primary production and processing. All countries have established some form of institutional and administrative capacities for implementing the agricultural and rural development policies, especially for the IPARD funds. Still, there is a need for additional capacity building, due to numerous factors, among which the dynamic environment with many continuously changing aspects (CAP reform, accession methodology, climate change or issues arising from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemics). Further promoting the programme, strengthening the national institutions’ set-up and capacity, aligning to the beneficiaries needs, and supporting them in preparing viable or sustainable projects are recommendations for better use of the current funds, as well as for the preparation of IPARD III cycle

Report on the Status of Organic Agriculture and Industry in North Macedonia

Report on the Status of Organic Agriculture and Industry in North Macedoni