Balkans | TIKA’s support for rural development in North Macedonia

The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) provided greenhouses, irrigation equipment and seeds to 100 families in order to support rural development, prevent migration from rural areas and increase employment opportunities in North Macedonia.

TIKA has been working for many years to contribute to the rural development and revitalization of the regional economy in the areas where our relatives are concentrated in North Macedonia, whose economy is largely based on agriculture. In this context, recent projects for strawberry cultivation, fruit cultivation, greenhouse cultivation and beekeeping have been implemented in the past years with the support of agricultural equipment, within the framework of ensuring communication and transfer of expertise between farmers in the region, and training farmers. By experts, increasing competitiveness by providing healthy and high quality food production.

Adding a new project to its projects in this field, TİKA has established agricultural projects in greenhouses in 80 villages where mainly York Turks live in the rural areas of North Macedonia, where they can grow vegetables all year round for 100 needy farmer families, regardless of the climate. TIKA, which provides special support to young farmers in the region through the project, aims to enable families to grow vegetables with high productivity throughout the year through the drip irrigation system and seed support, while on the other hand it aims to prevent migration by supporting employment and rural development. With the project, which aims to expand the variety of high-yield and quality products by distributing the harvest throughout the year, to increase market competitiveness and improve household income, expert support and agricultural training are provided at every stage from seedling production to crop.

The project, which is also supportive and complementary to agricultural production projects implemented throughout North Macedonia; All over the country, from Eastern Macedonia to the Vardar Plain and Polog Valley, and from the historical region of Kumanova to Koprulu and Demirkapi (Gostivar – villages of Yukari Banitsa and Zdunje – Koprulu – Kucilar, Urizar and Melnicani – Lozova-Kumali villages (Dorfulu, Mahmutçevo and Tatarlı villages) and Demir Kapı (villages of Bistrenci, Koreşnik and Çelevez), Negin (villages of Disan, Pepelişte and Krivolak), Gradsko (villages of Gradsko and Viniçane) and Pehçova (villages of Trabotilişte, Grad and Tsrnik) It includes the villages of Calkova, Çalıklı and Didelı.