Family Farming in the Albanian Mountainous Areas: Local Agro Pastoral Farming Systems and Market Integration Perspectives

Abstract

The objectives of this paper are to understand the evolution of family farming in a mountainous area of Southern Albania after the fall of communism in 1991 and to identify the socio-economic developments that characterize this territory in very last years. According to primary or secondary historical data, there is a recent increasing demand for dairy and meat products due to the rapid growth of urban markets. This has pushed for an increase in livestock production. Simultaneously new moving breeders from southern Albania are renting vast good pastures and the management reform of public pastures have put more pressure on common pastures. At the end, the paper discusses the perspectives of improving livestock farming systems in that context.