Paper Title
Developments in Main Areas of State Support to Agriculture Sector

Abstract
There is a sustainable growth of Albanian agriculture, which according to official data goes in parallel with GDP increase and contributes substantially to it. Recent years show a higher increase of the agriculture products accompanied with a higher increase in exports of these products toward the region and beyond. The agriculture and rural development policies are following since 2007, the path of aligning with EU acquis and Common Agriculture Policy. The sector is developing steadily supported by country policies and strategies, state financial support as well as foreign aid leaded by EU funding. The measures taken during the period since 2007 have given impact to the steady increase of the sector. In this paper we want to show the importance of the state support to such measures through data and figures as well as analysis of the trends. These measures have covered a wide range of agriculture products and other support measures, among them aromatic and medicinal plants, wine and olive sector are of the most spread during years. In this paper we want to show the importance of the state support to such measures through data and figures as well as analysis of the trends. A general picture of the main economic trends of the country are given at the beginning of this paper, to follow with specific issues related to the state subsidies to farmers and the state of play of the sectors under study. The main important message is to show that the impact of state subsidies is tangible, the increase of production, the processing, the sales and the exports is estimated substantial, which correlates with the subsidies� allocation to farmers and agro-businesses. Some conclusions and recommendations are given at the end, to give a view of how to improve the government intervention and to increase the impact of the subsidies to farmers in the Albanian economy as well as to the farmers� economy. Key Words- agriculture and rural development, state support, farmers.