Albanian Development Fund

Brief description
The Albanian Development Agency (ADF) is a public agency which promotes a sustainable balanced and cohesive, social and economic development in order to support the government’s policies at the local and regional level.

The ADF was established as an autonomous agency for the implementation of the “Poverty Alleviation and Rural Infrastructure” Project at the beginning of 1993, based on an agreement between the Albanian Government and the World Bank.
On May 11, 2009, the Albanian People’s Assembly endowed ADF with a special legal status.
The main objectives of the ADF are:

• improvement of the local socio-economic infrastructure;
• improvement of the local public services;
• institutional strengthening of the local government units;
• encouragement of good governance at local level;

Brief description of the territory
The Region (Qarku) of Tiranë has under its jurisdiction the Districts of Tiranë and  Kavajë. Tiranë which has a surface area of 1.586 km² consists of 3 municipalities and 24 communes, which encompass 243 villages. The Region of Tiranë is bordered to the north by the Region of  Durrës, to the northeast by the Region of Dibër, to the south by the Region of Elbasan,  and to the west by the Adriatic Sea. At regional level, there can be counted about 37 147 farm households. The average size of a farm is circa 1.28 ha. Mainly farms of the size 0.5-1 ha and 1-1.5 ha prevail in the area.

Dairy farms and milk processing factories
There is noticed a tendency for a modern milk processing industry of including projects for capacity enlargement and use of a more up-to-date technology.
Agricultural and livestock products processing lines (fruits, vegetables, milk etc.) In the Region of Tiranë, mainly in the areas of Vaqarr, “Unaza e re”, Kashar, “Autostradë” and “Kavajë” there are people who are engaged in the processing of sauces, spices and vegetable conserves. Referring to the agro-processing sector, there are about 28 entities that exert their activity in cooking oil processing, two enterprises in pasta production, and 17 in wine and other alcoholic beverage production.

In the Region of Tiranë, the specialists of the counseling service support and encourage to increase the level of cooperation and coordination five associations (not-for profit organizations) and seven associations of mutual cooperation which have been registered through a court decision to exert their activities in the areas of Baldushk, Zallherr, Tiranë, Dajt, Prezë, Pezë and “Luz i vogël”. In addition to these associations, there are groups of farmers who aim at establishing the first associations for agricultural cooperation. They are engaged in the sector of livestock farming, agglomerated agriculture (including livestock farming, vegetables, olive orchards, and fruiticulture), production of cooking oil, vineyards, apiculture etc.