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Rural poverty in the Republic of Macedonia

The country’s rural areas are home to 40 per cent of the population and two thirds of its poor people. Most rural households depend largely on crop and livestock production for their income. Poor people in rural areas are either members of traditional small-scale agricultural households eking out a livelihood at subsistence level, or they are among the poor rural unemployed, who may be even more disadvantaged than poor landholders.

Food security and poor nutrition are not critical development issues in the country, but rural households are extremely vulnerable to external economic shocks. Because of economic transition and regional instabilities the reliability of local food production is far from assured.

While small-scale farmers can produce at least part of their food and earn some income by selling surplus production, unemployed people in rural areas have no such opportunities. They have no access to agricultural assets and few prospects for employment, since non-farm rural enterprises do not have the capacity to absorb new entrants to the labour force.

Rural poverty in Macedonia increased as a result of the economic transition that followed the collapse of the communist system and the break-up of the Yugoslav republic. Rural people were without adequate inputs and access to markets. They lacked financial resources for investment to improve their incomes and living conditions. The absence of rural financial and technical services was the single greatest constraint to development of private smallholder farming in the country.

Who are the country’s rural poor people and where are they?

The country’s poorest people are small-scale farmers, unemployed people and pensioners. The north of the country is poorer than the south, and poverty is particularly acute in the north-east, where there are more unemployed people and pensioners in the poor segment of the population. There are proportionately more farmers among the poor people in the north-west.

Why are they poor?

The causes of rural poverty and underdevelopment include:

• massive unemployment resulting from the breakdown of the command economy
• lack of financial and technical services for improvements in agriculture
• lack of access to national and international markets for agricultural products

Source: IFAD