INSTITUTIONS AND INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE: WHAT IMPEDES FARMERS’ COOPERATION IN NORTH MACEDONIA?

Small farmers struggle to accomplish their best interests in environments and value chains with large and organized buyers. Farmers in general should be able to recognize their interest in joining some form of cooperative organization such as an association, an agricultural cooperative or a producer organization. However, despite the large number of agricultural operators in North Macedonia, the number and functionality of agricultural cooperatives are still very low. The historical, cultural and socio-economic features largely influenced the way associations, cooperatives and organizations of agricultural producers in the country are formed. These features may also provide answers on the crucial conditions for these association to function. The norms of human behavior in the agricultural sector in North Macedonia are difficult to alter. The multiple changes in the social order and the negative experiences in the association of the rural population in the past have great impact on the cooperative models to this day. In this context, the paper focuses on the historical and current perspectives impeding the formation and functioning of agricultural cooperatives in the Macedonian agriculture.&nbsp

SUPPLY CHAINS AS NETWORK - THE CASE OF ORGANIC PRODUCTION IN MACEDONIA

The absence of relations between the primary producers and markets has been identified as one of the primary problems in the supply chain for producing organic products in Macedonia. Nevertheless, the organisation and network structure of the supply chains are often responsible for the economic performance, competiveness and information diffusion between the trading firms and their partners-farmers producing organic products. In this regard, analysing supply chains through social network analysis lenses helps to identify the actors and the important factors that contribute in the information diffusion across the supply chains. The aim of this paper is to identify and map the information diffusion channels of the largest distributers of organic products in Macedonia, by mapping the structure of their social networks. The Social Network Analysis includes networks on horizontal level - farmer’s decision to get involved in organic farming, or transfer the conventional production into organic, and vertical level – information provided by the distribution and trading partners in the organic value chain. The results show that information and resources are often embedded in the farmers’ personal network, however farmers producing organic products are a closed group with very few relations among themselves indicating to a low level of trust in sharing or receiving information. Most of the identified relations among the actors in the analysed network are based either on commercial basis (distributors) or friendship (other farmers). The identified absence of relations among farmers on horizontal level can seriously impede the transfer of information and decrease the motivation for entering, maintaining and introducing innovations in the organic production, thus further examination and improvement of the information channels is necessary

Tehnička učinkovitost makedonskih svinjogojskih farmi

The economic transition and market globalization processes have triggered structural changes in the Macedonian agriculture and influence on the efficiency and competitiveness in the pig production sub-sector. This paper aims to identify the level of technical efficiency on pig farms in the Republic of Macedonia. The Data Envelopment Analysis approach is used to measure the efficiency level, taking into consideration the exact quantity of inputs used in the production in relation to a given quantity of output. The data is analysed by making comparative analyses of the managerial behaviour and other non-measurable variables that influence the efficiency. The results determine what managerial activities influence the efficiency. They indicate the type and level of inputs that need to be changed, so that farms could reach the same technical efficiency achieved by the best farmers.Procesi ekonomske tranzicije i tržišne globalizacije potaknuli su promjene u makedonskoj poljoprivredi i izvršili utjecaj na učinkovitost i konkurentnost u svinjogojskom podsektoru. Cilj ovoga rada je određivanje razine tehničke učinkovitosti na svinjogojskim farmama u Republici Makedoniji. Korištena je metoda analize omeđivanja podataka kako bi se izmjerila razina učinkovitosti, pri čemu se uzela u obzir točna količina inputa u proizvodnju u odnosu na dobivenu količinu outputa. Podaci su analizirani pomoću komparativne analize menadžerskog ponašanja i ostalih nemjerljivih varijabli koje utječu na učinkovitost. Oni ukazuju na to da se vrsta i razina inputa moraju promijeniti na farmama, kako bi se dosegla razina učinkovitosti koji postižu najbolji poljoprivrednici

Agriculture in the Western Balkan Countries

The current publication covers Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244/99, the FYR Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, and provides an overview of the agricultural situation in the European Union (EU) candidate and potential candidate countries of the Western Balkans (WBs). The objective was to provide an analysis of the development and current situation in agriculture and agricultural policy in these countries as relates to the EU accession process. The individual country reports, as well as a cross-country overview and comparison, have been prepared as a part of "AgriPolicy" project, which was financially supported by the European Commission under the 7th framework program