ADDRESS BY THE HON NINU ZAMMIT, MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES

Allow me first of all to thank the joint organisers of this meeting – i.e. CIHEAM and The Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries of the Kingdom of Morocco – for giving us the opportunity to meet in this mystical city with the objective of exchanging views on a number of topics related to Agricultural and Rural Development Policy issues in the Mediterranean. This meeting is also enticed to highlight the opportunities and challenges that a Mediterranean-wide integrated agricultural policy offers in the context of the Euro-Med Partnership process.

Since the late 1980's, Malta has been experiencing relatively high rates of real GDP growth. The development of the services sector has been the main contributor to the rates of growth achieved. Agriculture's share in the GDP has been declining steadily over the years and now stands at 2.5%. Notwithstanding the natural disadvantages that agriculture faces in Malta, a modest but steady rate of growth of the sector has been achieved.

Malta is a densely populated country and agriculture activity has been pushed to marginal land. Agriculture activity is further accentuated by a scarcity of water resources for irrigation purposes. In such a scenario there is no room for any large scale development of agriculture.

In order to sustain a small but important agricultural sector, agricultural policy in Malta has always been characterized on the one hand by the low public investments:

in infrastructures,

in research and development and

in direct support.

On the other hand, agriculture policy has also been characterised by a high level of protection from imports. The producers are shielded from international competition and are given access to the two scarcest resources in Malta - land and water - at relatively low cost.

Malta is a candidate country for accession to the European Union and a plan for the adoption of the Common Agricultural Policy of the Union has been drawn up. The main feature of this plan is a capacity building effort that would enable Maltese agriculture to restructure effectively in order to be able to meet with confidence the challenges of a further liberalisation of trade through the implementation of a wide range of rural development measures. However, it has to be pointed out that whether Malta becomes a EU member state or not, the agriculture sector just the same has to undergo the restructuring process in order that it becomes more efficient, more productive and, ergo, more competitive.

As regards the availability of land for agriculture, one has to conceive that as a result of the fact that with some 80 percent of Maltese farmers occupying rented land, investment in land is comparatively less important than would otherwise be the case. Indeed, there is considerable real value in the possession of a renewable and inheritable lease. It is the choice of farming enterprises that determine the type and extent of investment in agriculture. However the likely future direction of investment lies in the multi-functional character of agriculture in Malta.

Nowadays it is pertinent to state that there is a growing awareness of this concept which relates to the role of the farmer in creating and maintaining a rural environment that conveys significant public goods – of beauty, of space and of natural interest.

Many farming areas in the Mediterranean have the potential to deliver these benefits. However, in Malta there is a unique opportunity to develop the interplay of history, natural environment and rural life over the ages. The added attraction of this type of development is likely to be highly significant.

Moreover, with careful planning and appropriate policy, such a development could be married to modern agricultural enterprises in a mutually reinforcing manner. The rural landscape of my country fits appropriately in this context: the small plots of land surrounded by stone rubble walls, a common rural feature of Malta, are set off in a most picturesque manner when planted with, for example, rows of grapevines. An added advantage of vines in the landscape is that the foliage remains green during the summer, when most of the landscape is parched and bleached.

_{An integrated rural development policy for the Mediterranean supported by the European Union should therefore give ample opportunity for developments in this direction for the benefit of rural society throughout the Mediterranean basin.}