The Junik Team – Municipality of Junik, Municipal Spatial Planning Support Programme (MuSPP), Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB), Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning (MESP), organized a workshop with the focus on Agriculture on February 11th in Junik. The key aim of the workshop was to discuss various activities and projects for achieving the set objectives on this thematic issue.

The key points of the workshop were the presentations done by the MuSPP representative on the issues and problems identified from the Municipal Development Plan (MDP) profile on the field of agriculture, and a focused debate on finding the activities and projects that would lead to fulfilment of the objectives, i.e.: improvement of the agriculture sector and protection of the agricultural land, improvement of watering system, protection from losing the agricultural land, development of agricultural policies that lead to increase of use of agricultural land in harmony with EU standards, easy access to agricultural land, promoting agricultural produce on local and regional markets, increase of livestock, improvement of organisation.

Considering that the municipality has developed a strategy for local development, participants agreed that a variety of projects from this document may be incorporated in MDP. Some of them require more focused study and debate and with other stakeholder groups. Thus, it was proposed to arrange other meetings to provide details about the projects in the near future.

During the workshop participants pointed out the need for some reorganisation within the municipal structure, and they suggested the establishment of an agriculture directorate as well as the Institutionalization of groups of farmers, processors and retailers. It is also necessary to raise the awareness of population about the importance of cultivation of agricultural land since agriculture is currently not seen by youth as a profitable profession.