Sustainable Agriculture Roadmap
The Sustainable Agriculture pillar of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans (GAWB) focuses on improving the sustainability and competitiveness of the agri-food sector while strengthening environmental protection and rural development across the region. The Green Agenda Action Plan (2021–2030) introduced actions to strengthen agricultural governance, align the agri-food sector with EU standards on food safety, plant and animal health, and welfare, and promote environmentally sustainable farming practices, including organic agriculture.
The Revised Action Plan (2025–2030) builds on these foundations through a more focused set of actions aimed at strengthening policy alignment with EU agricultural and food safety frameworks, promoting sustainable agricultural production and land use, and supporting sustainable rural development and competitiveness of the agri-food sector across the Western Balkans Six (WB6).
REGIONAL PROGRESS OVERVIEW
The analysis presented below is based on the Reports on the Implementation of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans Action Plan (GARI), which serve as the primary regional monitoring instrument for tracking implementation under the Sustainable Agriculture Roadmap. GARI consolidates data from regional institutions, EU-aligned reporting frameworks, and WB6 authorities covering developments in agricultural policy alignment, rural development, sustainable land management, and agri-environmental measures.
Support from EU pre-accession instruments, particularly IPA III and the IPARD programme, continues to play an important role in strengthening institutional capacity, supporting rural development measures, and financing investments in agricultural modernisation and food safety systems aligned with EU standards.
The 2025 GARI finds that the pace of alignment remains uneven across the WB6: Montenegro recorded good progress, Albania and North Macedonia some progress, Kosovo* and Serbia limited progress, and Bosnia and Herzegovina no significant progress. Several framework laws were adopted during the reporting period, including the Animal Health Law and the Plant Health Law in Albania, both applicable two years after adoption, the Law on Organic Production in Montenegro in 2024, and, in December 2025, the Law on Official Controls and the Law on Organic Production in Serbia. Organic production accounts for around 0.13% of total agricultural land, well below the 25% target set under the European Green Deal, and none of the WB6 has designated Nitrate Vulnerable Zones or prepared an action plan to reduce nitrate pollution from agriculture. Progress on the LEADER approach remains at an early stage: 2025 brought preparatory steps in several WB6, but the formal accreditation process for the LEADER measure has still not commenced in any of them.
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
- Strengthen administrative and technical capacity in IPARD operating structures and ensure sound financial management.
- Build administrative capacity in paying agencies and managing authorities and in integrated systems such as the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS), ensuring interoperability of the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) and verifying the accuracy of farm register data.
- Adopt domestic agriculture and rural development strategies, harmonising support measures and integrating Green Agenda objectives such as climate adaptation.
- Adopt key laws, including a domestic organic production law, a quality policy law and a law on agriculture and rural development advisory services, together with implementing legislation on wine and on agricultural market organisation, fully aligned with the EU acquis.
- Accelerate the action plan for EU acquis alignment in agriculture, rural development, quality policy and organic farming, including completion of the vineyard register.
- Develop and adopt a multiannual domestic strategy for agriculture and rural development, harmonising support measures in line with EU standards.
- Enhance vocational education and training by improving promotion, increasing the number of graduates and aligning skills with labour market needs, and advance the digital and green transformation and inclusiveness of education.
- Strengthen infrastructure for cyber-resilience and establish the administrative structures required for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
- Ensure robust implementation across all agricultural and rural reforms through targeted staffing and training.
- Increase the number of food establishments compliant with EU standards, and transform food systems for climate resilience, sustainable production and consumer protection.
- Strengthen administrative capacity and infrastructure for food safety controls, disease surveillance and vaccination.
- Improve IPARD implementation to avoid the loss of funds.
- Raise awareness among farmers and other stakeholders of relevant strategies and policies.
- Redesign budgetary support to increase the climate resilience of agricultural production and productivity.
- Increase financing for AKIS, research, digitalisation and the capacity of competent authorities.
- Provide targeted guidance on climate policy, pesticide reduction, organic farming, nature conservation and biodiversity.
- Increase financing for agri-environmental measures (AEMs, Measure 4 of IPARD III) beyond organic farming, including digital climate-smart agriculture platforms and pilot initiatives, and strengthen monitoring by competent authorities.
- Support green capital investment in agriculture and food processing.
- Step up sustainable rural development, livelihood diversification and self-organisation through LEADER and community-led local development.
- Establish manure management frameworks and guidelines, and strengthen animal identification, registration and movement controls.
- Coordinate sustainable agriculture with energy, circular economy and transport through spatial planning.