The European Union’s Neighbourhood Programme Assessment of the Agriculture and Rural Development Sectors in the Eastern Partnership countries Republic of Belarus Funded by the European Union Implemented by FAO FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (REU) Benczur utca 34. H-1068 Budapest Hungary Tel: +36 1 4612000 Fax: +36 1 3517029 E-mail: [email protected] FAO Project No. GCP/RER/041/EC EU Project No. ENPI 2012/298-262 Start date: 16th July, 2012 End date: 31st December, 2012 This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the FAO and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. List of abbreviations ARD Agricultural and Rural development BERAS Baltic Ecological Recycling Agriculture and Society BSU Belarusian State University BYR Belarusian Ruble (National currency of Belarus) CAP Common Agricultural Policy CBC Cross Border Cooperation CIS The Commonwealth of Independent States DCFTA Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement EaP Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) ENPARD European Neighbourhood Programme Agriculture and Rural Development ENPI European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument ENRD The European Network for Rural Development EU European Union FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations GDP Gross Domestic Product GNI Gross National Income GLOBALG.A.P Good Agricultural Practices: voluntary standards for the certification of production processes of agricultural (including aquaculture) products GMO Genetically Modified Organism HACCP Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points ISO International Organization for Standardization MAF Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Belarus MFA Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus MoE Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Belarus MoNREP Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection NAS National Academy of Sciences of Belarus NGO Non Government Organization OIE World Organization for Animal Health OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe PCA Partnership and Cooperation Agreement PF Partnership Framework PPP Purchasing Power Parity REUD Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia of FAO SMB Small and medium business SME Small and medium enterprises SWOT Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats TASIC Technical Aid to the Commonwealth of Independent States UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme UPOV International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants USD United States Dollar USAID United States Agency for International Development WTO World Trade Organization 1 2 Contents List of abbreviations ................................................................................................................................... 1 Contents ....................................................................................................................................................... 3 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 5 1.1. Context and objective of the sector analyses ......................................................................................... 5 1.2 Study Team ............................................................................................................................................. 5 1.3. Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... 6 2. Background and key figures .................................................................................................................. 7 2.1. General context and economic indicators .............................................................................................. 7 2.2. Agriculture and rural sector ................................................................................................................... 8 3. Government Policy for the agriculture and rural development sectors .......................................... 18 3.1. Description and assessment of the state of art in national regulations ................................................18 3.2. Description and assessment of the current and planned Governments interventions and strategies ...19 3.3. Assessment of how the correspondent Government programmes fits into the ENPARD approach ...21 3.4. Review of policy ..................................................................................................................................21 4. Assessment of institutional capacity ................................................................................................... 23 4.1. Assessment of government institutions for managing, implementing and monitoring an ENPARD approaches ..............................................................................................................................................24 4.2. Assessment of agriculture and rural economy stakeholders for managing, implementing and monitoring an ENPARD approach .........................................................................................................25 4.3. Assessment of the need for training of the agriculture and rural economy stakeholders ....................25 5. Review of existing ongoing programmes ............................................................................................ 26 5.1. Collection and comparison of results from different data sources ......................................................26 5.2. Presentation of benchmarks .................................................................................................................28 6. Bottlenecks and SWOT analysis ......................................................................................................... 29 6.1. Sectors specific SWOT analysis (strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats) .............................29 6.2. List of the most relevant priorities areas ..............................................................................................31 7. Recommendations on actions that could be implemented in a bilateral context ............................ 32 8. Identification of regional gaps and priorities and recommendations for future actions ............... 33 9. Conclusions and Lessons Learnt ......................................................................................................... 35 10. References and sources used .............................................................................................................. 38 11. Annexes ................................................................................................................................................ 39 Annex 1: Organisation structure of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Belarus .....40 Annex 2: Workshop Report ........................................................................................................................41 Annex 3: State Programmes for agriculture and rural development 2011-2015 ........................................48 3 4 1. Introduction 1.1. Context and objective of the sector analyses Most of the EaP countries: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine have an agricultural sector composed of a majority of practically subsistence small farms with small and fragmented plots, which are mainly utilised for subsistence agriculture, and therefore have limited link to markets, limited resources and growth potential. There are already donors providing assistance, EU and FAO among them, but the current global crisis with soaring food prices among other consequences, have demonstrated the need of EaP countries to further enhance the formulation of agriculture policies aimed to support farmers and farmers’ associations, support private and public stakeholders in the agricultural sector, increase agriculture production on a sustainable basis, and modernize both, agriculture and rural areas. A general assessment of the agriculture and rural areas will be crucial for developing proper strategies for the agriculture and rural development sector. These studies will contribute to assess the situation in the sector, prioritise and target sub-sectors, areas of intervention and beneficiaries in consultation with the local public and private stakeholders. The overall scope of the project is in line with the European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD) an EU initiative built in the EU’s best practice experienced in developing agriculture and rural areas. Based on the results of this project, ENPARD programmes and activities could be identified, elaborated and implemented in interested EaP countries. 1.2 Study Team