Speech by the HON. NINU ZAMMIT, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, DURING A seminar on ‘Developing a Rural Development Plan for Malta’ organised by Fondazzjoni Ceratonia

Mr Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends and Colleagues,

It is a pleasure for me to address this seminar.

This is so for a number of reasons. In the first place, we have met to discuss a theme of great interest. It is a theme that is central to both agricultural as well as sustainable development. Sustainability of any development requires the appropriate orientation and the right mechanisms.

But our interest in today’s seminar must go beyond that. Incidentally, this occasion coincides with our preparations for the formulation and implementation of the Rural Development Programme for the Maltese Islands.

This seminar, therefore, introduces us on our task ahead. With or without EU accession, Maltese agriculture needs to modernise and restructure. We hear and read about such a necessity. We are going through a new global market, at all levels and in all spheres.

Present and future economic development, including that in agriculture and all its activities, need to beresponsive to change. In particular, there is the external environment of more liberalisation and greater integration of markets as a result of the global disciplines of the World Trade Organisation.

Within the context of our country, such a new policy orientation poses certain challenges. These challenges have to be addressed in an efficacious manner so as to reap maximum benefits for all the stakeholders concerned.

The point of departure is the realisation of our present conditions. This obviously entails an ‘operation review’ of the present state of affairs in our agricultural sector.

Through the recognition of our present conditions, we will formulate the concepts and the ‘road map’ of a strategy for the formulation of the appropriate programmes, that is, a Rural Development Programme for the Maltese Islands.

Maltese agriculture needs to be rehabilitated and given a new impetus. This objective has to be achieved in a manner that ensures that Maltese agriculture will be preserved by a modus operandi that ensures viability and sustainability for Maltese agriculture, both as a system as well as a sector.

In many respects, the restructuring of Maltese agriculture needs to be:

- multifunctional, i.e. respecting the varied roles of agriculture over and above the production of quality and safe foodstuffs at affordable prices, thereby implying the recognition and encouragement of the services provided by farmers. Obviously, for these services the producers are entitled to fair and just incomes;

- integrated and multi-sectoral, whereby all existing sectors and activities should be given their chance and space to develop, to diversify and to reate new sources of income and employment while the rural fabric and heritage be protected;

- participatory, that is, all those involved in the process of change need to be consulted so that their participatory role will be enhanced and optimized.

Having established the necessity of restructuring, clearly subject to a number of targets, we deduce that in turn we need a new vision and a new concept of Maltese agriculture, a vision which must be shared by each one of us. It is the duty of all of us stakeholders concerned to put our input in order to ensure the actuation of this concept that will guarantee the sustainability of our agriculture.

Such a sustainability has to comprise diverse concepts, amongst which:

• the notion that agricultural activityplays a central role,

• the fact that the economic and social environment, which is necessary to maintain the agricultural setting, needs to be preserved and developed, and hence the need for rural development,

• the established principle that agriculture is important for our environmentbecause it integrates such issues such as conservation of biological diversity as well as the maintenance of the farmed landscapes.

As stipulated in the mission statement of the Department of Agriculture, the agriculture sector:

• has to offer more differentiated, higher quality products and services to domestic consumers and tourists;
• has to integrate with and cater for the needs and demands of tourists as well as those of agro-industry to maximise the growth of Malta’s GDP;
• has to provide better protection and development of the environment; and
• has to preserve and enhance traditional rural resources, agricultural skills, heritage, and quality of life;
• has to diversify and develop the multifunctional role of rural enterprises; and also
• has to support professional agricultural training.

Our envisaged programme for rural development therefore is all embracing.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has been involved in a great protracted search for identifying the right partner for the formulation and drafting of a Rural Development Programme for the Maltese Islands.

We have entrusted Cranfield University with this task. In turn, Cranfield has selected a group of experts in their fields.

he merging of the competences and experiences of these referred to experts will no doubt ensure the appropriate formulation of a programme that shall be tailored to accommodate the specific needs of our agricultural sector.

On its part, the Ministry is ensuring a comprehensive in-depth treatment of all the factors that are of relevance to the formulation of a Rural Development Programme for the Maltese Islands. Very briefly, these factors include:

• a holistic and integrated approach to Maltese agriculture and its multiple vocations;a programme that shall be conceptually designed and actuated according to the multifunctional character of agriculture in the Maltese Islands;
• a policy guidelines on how to preserve, rehabilitate and enhance Malta’s minuscule agriculture, and
• a scheme incorporating structural measures that are needed for the sustainability of agriculture and long-term economic viability.

As such, the objectives of this Rural Development Programme are:

• to articulate and advise on the support framework through rural development measures which are deemed of relevance to Maltese agriculture for the comprehensive attainment of the mission statement’s goals;
• to address the prioritisation in implementing the accompanying measures of the CAP and advise on payments modulation, taking into account the specific circumstances of Maltese agriculture;
• to delineate and prioritise schemes of agro-environmental measures and advise on aid modulation;
• to develop, in particular, an animal farm waste management programme and advise on aid modulation;
• to study the upgrading and modernisation of the processing and marketing side of Maltese agriculture and advise on an aid modulation scheme to the processing and marketing of agricultural products;
• to advise on other measures accompanied with an aid modulation scheme for the general development of rural areas. Measures which, a priori, are deemed of relevance include:

1. management of agricultural water resources,
2. village and hamlet renewal,
3. the introduction of a rural enterprise scheme,
4. promotion of typical traditional products and quality agricultural products, and
5. the promotion and establishment of agro-tourism activities integrating the support and participation of rural people.

Mr Chairman, other objectives of the Rural Development Programme are:

• to advise on an implementation time frame and its logistics rationale;

• to assess all the possible funding sources to Malta, both prior and after accession to the European Union, taking into account Malta’s Objective 1 status for co-financing; and

• to address the institutional, human resource requirements and administrative capacity building normally required for the launching and effective implementation of a Rural Development Programme.

Ladies and gentlemen.

As in all projects, the only way, the only manner, the only road map that guarantees the successful actuation of this Rural Development Plan is encompassed by a basic necessity: genuine c-operation between all the involved players. In this regard, the Ministry is working with the team of experts on the drafting, formulation, and implementation of the Programme.

We are set to involve all stakeholders and, to that intent, we have prepared a Consultation Document and will be holding a Consultation Seminar.

The task will start with an important participatory exercise.

Consultation will be addressing the strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities and the threats to our sector. On the basis of such an exercise we can ensure that we will design the programme we need.

Later we will be having individual seminars and workshops for specific sectors.

Through these initiatives we will be discussing the vision we need to have by way of departure, the logistical pathways for our new policy, and the measures we need to have in place.

The Rural Development Programme will thus be the blueprint of our future work for the modernisation and the restructuring of our agriculture as well as for the related sectors. It will chart the future for our agriculture both as an economic sector as well as a social system.

Mr Chairman,

It is, however, also pertinent to highlight the fact that this Rural Development Programme will complement the other financial instruments that are being contemplated in the Special Market Policy Programme for the Maltese Agriculture, which measures are targeted to ensure the sustainability of agriculture in Malta.

In the SMPPMA, we are embarking on the gradual dismantling of protection alongside grants of direct income support. Such income support will aid farmers to start their restructuring plans.

The Rural Development Programme will thus correlate the SMPPAA our agricultural producers shall be more properly informed as to how best to adopt the interventions that are of interest and relevance to them.

In conclusion, one has to point out that the Rural Development Programme has other bearings, other aspects as well.

It is an input to the National Development Plan. As such our Rural Development Programme will have a national dimension. That at once highlights the importance and the need of a well planned, well implemented and easily understood Rural Development Programme.

I have earlier remarked that, with or without accession to the European Union, our agriculture needs to be restructured. This restructuring is achievable at a cost. Without EU accession, these costs have to be met from our pockets.

With EU accession, our Rural Development Programme will be including the funding sources under EC co-financing precisely under the 2^nd Pillar of the Common Agriculture Policy. This is clearly a beneficial opportunity that further facilitates the essential and entailed restructuring.

Mr Chairman,

Our road map is planned. Together we are capable of designing a holistic Rural Development Programme based on the specific requirements of our sector. Together we can formulate a Rural Development Programme that incorporates an exhaustive framework for the actuation of measures which are necessary for the survival of each and every aspect of agriculture. Together we have to make sure that agriculture remains sustainable in Malta in this day and age of globalisation.

Finally, I wish to thank Fondazzjoni Ceratonia for making this seminar possible and augur that it will serve as a fruitful forum on rural development in the Maltese islands.