United Nations Radio

While countries in the Western Balkans are seeing healthy economic growth overall, rural areas are falling behind, according to a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Bank.

Rural areas lagging behind

The report says the region is facing a number of challenges such as widening agricultural trade deficits and climate change, which are putting pressure on agricultural resources.

In addition, young people are increasingly migrating to urban areas or abroad in search of economic opportunities.

The report notes that although they are at different stages of development, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia face similar challenges in modernizing their agricultural sectors to become more competitive in regional and European markets.

The report says most farms in the Western Balkans operate at subsistence or semi-subsistence levels.

Commercial farms often face many obstacles such as scarce credit or land, expensive inputs, degraded infrastructure and poor access to high value markets.

These challenges are compounded by the region's ongoing process of integration with the European Union.

At the same time, the report says opportunity is presented by the need to meet the European Union food safety and other standards while addressing the food and financial crises.

It says this is a powerful incentive for improving agricultural policy.

Bissera Kostova, United Nations.

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