On the 23rd of August, 2022 – In the premises of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of North Macedonia, an event was held related to the project “Collaborative Policy for Rural Development” – POLIRURAL, which is financed by the European Union through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

AgFutura Technologies, as a pilot-leader (www.agfutura.com), and the non-governmental organization Green Growth Platform, as a pilot-partner (www.greengrowth-platform.org), implemented the project activities in N. Macedonia. At this event, with the presence of stakeholders from different areas (decision-makers, farmers, experts), they presented the results of the project in the process of developing a collaborative rural policy, in the direction of creating more attractive and accessible rural areas for the existing population and for the potential newcomers in those rural places.

The Polirural project is implemented by a consortium consisting of 37 partners from Europe and led by the University of Agricultural Sciences from Prague, Czech Republic.

Project activities in N. Macedonia focused on the rural region around the cities of Gevgelija and Strumica. The purpose of this pilot was to understand the current situation in the field of rural development in order to identify the factors that would potentially contribute to increasing the attractiveness of rural areas in order to retain the existing population and attract new population. The results of the completed tasks within the framework of the pilot project are structured in the so-called ACTION PLAN aimed at helping key policy makers for rural development in N. Macedonia in the process of developing future reforms to improve the well-being of the existing inhabitants and potential newcomers to rural areas.

Within the framework of the project, through qualitative and quantitative research approaches, an evaluation of the effectiveness of existing measures and policies for rural development was carried out, and as a result, innovative proposals and recommendations were offered for the stimulation of rural policy, which enables decision-makers of various levels to be ready to deal with existing and future challenges regarding the development of rural areas in accordance with EU trends and strategies.

• The official website of the Polirural project: https://polirural.eu/
• The official website of Pilot 11, Gevgelija-Strumica region, North Macedonia: https://hub.polirural.eu/gevgelija-strumica-north-macedonia

Project “POLIRURAL” Facebook page: LINK

Project “POLIRURAL” LinkedIn page: LINK