TİKA Supports Agricultural Producers in Montenegro

In order to support greenhouse vegetable production, Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) provided greenhouses to 50 farmer families in the region of Sanjak, which is located in northern Montenegro and populated by mainly Bosnian and Albanian families.

Low-income families living in the rural areas of Bijelo Polje, Pljevlja, Berane, Plav, Gusinje, and Rožaje in the region of Sanjak in Montenegro emigrate due to unemployment and financial problems. TİKA implements the Greenhouse Production Support Project to prevent emigration, strengthen farmers and producers economically, and diversify the agricultural production. With this project, TİKA promotes a highly important income-generating activity in terms of both employment and contribution to household income.

The project is important since it increases the production and, consequently, household income and ensures a regular labor use throughout the year by enabling the economic production of crops when climatic conditions are not suitable for growing crops outdoors. In addition to enabling the production of crops throughout the year, greenhouse production is expected to lead to a decrease of an average of 15% in households’ expenditure on vegetables since families will be able to meet their own needs through greenhouse cultivation instead of purchasing vegetables. Therefore, the project will enable families to both meet their own vegetable needs and sell vegetables to earn income.

The Project Contributes to Sustainable Living

The symbolic delivery ceremony held in Bijelo Polje was attended by President of the Municipal Assembly of Bijelo Polje Abaz Dizdarević, Deputy Mayor Nermin Becirovic, Podgorica Program Coordinator Muhammed Ünal, and families in need. At the ceremony, President of the Municipal Assembly Abaz Dizdarević said that TİKA provides continuous aid to the people of Bijelo Polje and Montenegro and that they are grateful to TİKA for its agricultural projects, such as providing greenhouses. He underlined that it is highly important that this aid reaches the population that needs it the most: the people who live in rural areas and whose main source of income is agriculture. He stated that everybody works together to improve the living conditions of farmers and contribute to sustainable living by preventing emigration. 

Rural Development Projects Will Continue Increasingly

With the projects it has implemented all around Montenegro since 2010, TİKA has supported approximately 320 farmer families to develop the fruit farming industry, provided greenhouse support to 135 families to promote vegetable production, and established a micro-based olive processing plant for olive oil production with modern technology under hygienic conditions. TİKA has reached more than 2000 people with the rural development projects it implemented.