Empowering partnering links as opportunities for development of the regions: can PPPs work in agriculture

Dubravka Skunca, Myslym Osmani, Petar Borisov, Rezear Kolaj

Abstract: Despite transformative economic processes of the Balkan countries agriculture continues to be an important sector. As in the region countries a problem for agriculture in Albania remains financing of production in new dynamics of demographics and demand for food. The problematics is particularly conditional by factors human capital and social capital, need for a new level regional incentives and presence of more institutions as well – and in this framework the presence of private public partnerships. The study objective is to provide an analytical presentation of PPPs impact along with typical factors – human capital and social capital for increasing financing opportunities, illustrated with the case of farmers-producers in greenhouses in the main agricultural production area of Albania – Lushnja region. The measurement procedure was carried out in the main area of greenhouse production by random choice within the area and linear probability method and logit binary method are used. Results proved that human capital is not affecting farmers’ financing opportunities, while variable PPPs and social capital have significant implications for their increase. Study contributes theoretically to the comprehensive contemporary debate by analyzing financing in agriculture in the light of a new era developments at agri-industries with presence of economies of scale, highlighting the increase of PPPs in agriculture. The social capital and PPPs results with influence for increasing farmers’ founding opportunities and the logit model reconfirm PPP’s significance. The results can practically serve operators by proving the need for increased presence of new actors in the framework of regional policies.

Keywords: Albania; farmers; financing agriculture; human capital; PPPs; social capital

Date published: 2019-07-31