Publication: Kosovo Country Economic Memorandum, November 2021: Raising Agricultural Productivity
Loading...
Published
2021-11
ISSN
Date
2022-01-31
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Igniting farm productivity can support growth and job creation in Kosovo. Agricultural production, in real terms, has been decreasing in Kosovo since 2009 but employment has not changed much. This note examines drivers of agricultural productivity and its growth in Kosovo, and implied constraints on growth of agriculture, using farm-level data. The results of the productivity analysis suggest that in Kosovo there is a considerable misallocation of resources that if remedied can boost growth and job creation. In Kosovo, which suffers from low technical efficiency (TE), an average farm can produce the same amount of output using 72.8 percent less inputs. For micro and small farms, the current design of farm support does not facilitate income smoothing. On the other hand, agribusiness, mainly food processing, has been growing steadily in terms of number of firms, annual turnover, and employment. Finally, the impacts of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Kosovo agriculture have been multiple and so have been policy responses.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2021. Kosovo Country Economic Memorandum, November 2021: Raising Agricultural Productivity. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36899 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Tanzania - Sustaining and Sharing Economic Growth : Country Economic Memorandum and Poverty Assessment, Volume 1. Main Report(Washington, DC, 2007-03-01)Tanzania's National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) sets an ambitious target of 6 to 8 percent annual economic growth to achieve rapid reduction in poverty. This report focuses on three issues that are central to the success of Tanzania's poverty reduction efforts: 0 what factors explain Tanzania's recent acceleration in economic growth; has the accelerated economic growth translated into reduced poverty; and what must be done to sustain economic growth that is pro-poor. The report presents evidence from the macroeconomic, sectoral, and firm and household levels that shed light on these questions. The report is presented in two volumes. Volume I summarizes the main findings and recommendations. Volume II contains the main report.Publication Kosovo Country Economic Memorandum, November 2021(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-11)Kosovo, one of the youngest countries in an aging Europe, took its first steps on the road to greater prosperity a quarter of a century ago. Kosovo’s economy has experienced significant growth in recent years. The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered Kosovo’s first ever recession in 2020. While spending on education has more than doubled, the quality of human capital needs to improve. And barriers to women’s economic empowerment need to be lifted. Proximity to major markets in Europe and a youthful population provide an opportunity for growth. Kosovo is one of the youngest countries in an aging Europe. Trade facilitation and logistics connectivity are getting better. Proximity to a large and affluent market, low taxes and labor costs, a resilient and liquid financial sector, and strong ties with its diaspora will help support growth.Publication Kosovo Country Economic Memorandum, November 2021(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-11)Foreign direct investment (FDI) can bring many benefits to Kosovo’s economy, creating more and better jobs and spurring greater and more resilient economic growth. Many transition economies have used FDI as a pillar of their structural transformation and modernization efforts. The small number of firms in Kosovo that include FDI are more productive than other firms, and they were more resilient in the wake of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) economic recession. In Kosovo, FDI inflows have been concentrated in sectors that provide limited potential for productivity spillovers and benefits to the domestic economy. Kosovo needs to adopt proactive policies to strengthen its investment competitiveness and investor outreach in order to unlock more and higher-quality FDI. This note presents an ambitious reform agenda that can help improve Kosovo’s investment competitiveness and investor outreach. It presents a step-by-step reform program for unlocking the full potential of FDI for economic growth and job creation in Kosovo that the government can implement in the short to medium term. The note is structured in three sections. The first section looks at Kosovo’s FDI performance and assesses the quantity and quality of the FDI attracted so far. The second section benchmarks Kosovo’s locational FDI determinants, considering a set of macroeconomic and microeconomic indicators for its overall FDI competitiveness. The third section combines the findings from the first two sections with an in-depth assessment of Kosovo’s policy, legal, and institutional framework for investment to present a targeted reform agenda and policy action plan to help attract more and higher-quality investments to Kosovo.Publication Kosovo Country Economic Memorandum, November 2021(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-11)To boost economic growth and foster sustained formal job creation in Kosovo, igniting firm productivity is crucial. Based on detailed micro-data, this note examines the characteristics and recent evolution of firms in Kosovo, with particular attention to firm productivity. For the last decade, the landscape of firms in Kosovo has been dominated by microenterprises with low productivity, employment, and survival rates. Firm creation and growth,small firm density, average size, and the likelihood of survival are all low, which implies that there are severe constraints on private sector development. Kosovo’s firms are only tenuously linked to global markets and the country is lagging in the share of female-run companies. Positive and rising net job creation in 2015-18 was driven by higher formalization of jobs and the increasing size of incumbent firms, especially young small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Kosovo needs a multidimensional policy strategy to foster growth in firm productivity. Based on the study findings and the results of other notes prepared for Kosovo’s country economic memorandum (CEM), this note presents a policy strategy that targets the three main sources of firm productivity growth: (1) firm productivity (the within component); (2) market reallocation (the between component); and (3) firm dynamics (entry and exit). Section one examines the characteristics and recent dynamics of Kosovar firms. Section two analyzes the drivers and evolution of productivity, with emphasis on the links between productivity and access to credit. It also assesses the main barriers to productivity growth. Section three sheds light on how Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected Kosovar firms. Section four concludes by discussing tentative policy implications of the analysis.Publication Priorities for the Development of Smallholder Agriculture in Swaziland(Washington, DC, 2011-06-27)The purpose of this policy note is to contribute to an understanding of the factors that combine to constrain the development of smallholder agriculture in Swaziland. It seeks to shed light on why, despite being well-endowed in land and water resources, and despite having a climate that is generally favorable for the production of crops and livestock, Swaziland is obliged to import substantial amounts of food to feed the population. Also, why, in spite of the significant investments that have made in the agricultural sector and in spite of the extensive farming experience of the 70 percent of the population that lives off the land, smallholder farm productivity and production have been declining over time. Finally, the policy notes identify priority areas where strategic interventions are needed to turn things around and get smallholder agriculture going as a driver of growth and poverty reduction. This note provides an overview of smallholder agriculture in Swaziland, identifes constraints that may be contributing to poor performance in the smallholder sector, and evaluates technological options that could improve productivity of smallholder farmers. In addition, it summarizes the findings of a recent review of public spending on agriculture, undertaken to identify trends and patterns in agricultural spending over the last five years and to determine whether the government's budget allocations have been effective in supporting the intended development of smallholder agriculture. After addressing these questions, the policy note points to entry points where future government interventions could help to reverse the current negative trends.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2017(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30)Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.Publication Cross-Border Banking in EMDEs(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-09)Cross-border banking in emerging markets and developing economies has expanded across most World Bank regions and has become large relative to some home and host economies. This paper analyzes recent trends of bank activities of financial groups headquartered in 46 emerging markets and developing economies, as well as the ownership structure of 51 prominent financial groups from emerging markets and developing economies. The data suggest that cross-border groups in most regions have grown in size, geographical reach, range of activities, and group complexity. The increasing relevance and complexity of cross-border banking pose challenges for policy makers in home and host jurisdictions as well as for the groups themselves to maximize the benefits of international financial integration while mitigating the risks. This balance calls for stronger consolidated supervision, more regional coordination and harmonization, and better group-wide corporate governance and controls. However, key challenges include institutional capacity constraints and political factors.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Doing Business in 2005(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004)2004 was a good year for doing business in most transition economies, the World Bank Group concluded in its Doing Business in 2005 survey, the second in its series tracking regulatory reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business in the world's economies. However, the survey found that conditions for starting and running a business in poorer countries were consistently more burdensome than in richer countries. The top 5 economies on the ease of doing business were, in order: New Zealand, United States, Singapore, Hong Kong (China), and Australia. Slovakia was the leading reformer, together with Lithuania breaking into the list of the 20 economies with the best business conditions. The major impetus for reform in 2003 was competition in the enlarged European Union. Doing Business in 2004 presented indicators in 5 topics (starting a business, hiring and firing workers, enforcing contracts, getting credit and closing a business), so this report updates these measures. There are two additional sets: registering property and protecting investors. The indicators are used to analyze economic and social outcomes, such as productivity, investment, informality, corruption, unemployment, and poverty, and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.Publication The Contribution of Education to Economic Growth : A Review of the Evidence, with Special Attention and an Application to Sub-Saharan Africa(Elsevier, 2014-01-31)This paper examines recent studies that estimate the impact of education on economic growth. It explains why cross-country regressions face formidable econometric problems. Recent studies are reviewed: some show strong impacts of education on economic growth; others show little effect. All have multiple estimation problems, which may explain their divergent results. Evidence shows that education quality in Sub-Saharan Africa is much lower than in other developing countries. Estimates from three influential studies are extended; the results suggest that the impact of education on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is lower than in other countries, likely due to lower school quality.