Losses of biodiversity, climate changes, weather extremities these all are affecting Albanian horticulture: fruit, berries, vegetable production inter alia. Out-migration, abandonment of land, its fragmentation further compound Albanian agricultural nexus, especially that of micro and small farms. The project puts forward a realistic remedy: scaling-up the gourmand food processing, right at the farm, supporting its sales in Albania (eyeing rebounding tourism) and aboard. It focuses on excelling short local food and produce value chains, its recognition, processing, certification, packing, sales, supply chains and marketing. Translating European Green Deal driven Farm to Fork approach of short food supply and value chains into Albanian rural praxis.

The action aims to support biodiversity, protect, and promote circular economy models among Albanian small farmers and to create a group of local leaders that will help small farmers to adapt their farming techniques to preserve biodiversity on farms, and to raising awareness of climate change vulnerabilities and technical, agricultural and bio-engineering adaptation solutions in a sustainable, self-efficient, and cost-effectively way. It’s goal is to promote the use of smart on-farms technologies and adjustments resulting in biodiversity protection, sustainable rural development, and facing climate change challenges, such as restoration and preservation of old varieties of crops and their diversity, sustainable land management, management of old orchards and trees and restoration of fruit bushes, sowing the fields with post-harvest plants that provide the soil with phosphorus and potassium which affects biodiversity, reduce the number of pesticides, solutions that allow entering the market, water harvesting, soil and erosion management and introducing innovative horticulture practices.

Through this project, farmers will gain knowledge and also witness in-practice measures pertaining to the enhancement of sustainability of Albanian agriculture on small farms, environment preservation, and prevention of further losses in biodiversity, by implementing accurate pilots and its practical development, through the Farm to Fork Academy trainings: an open-door, competitive, intensive capacity building training programme, run in a project incubator formula, targeting young Albanian farmers and leaders, conducted along with tutor-led solution project development and the execution of 3 pilot investment schemes. Further, the project will trickle down the knowledge via demonstration workshops for a wider group of project beneficiaries.

The project is co-financed by International Visegrad Fund and supported by CEI.