Nezir Baho, from the village of Broshkq in Elbasan in central Albania, should have been harvesting the pomegranates he planted three years ago.
But instead he is only cleaning the leaves of diseased trees. Of the 480 trees he planted in this plot, 240 of them he had to cut because the seedling never developed enough to produce.
These fruitless trees have cost a lot of money to the 64-year-old.
“We have been planting pomegranates for three years, since plums and apricots did not work for us, as there was no market. We planted pomegranates with the thought that we will gain profit, but we were lied to,” he says, without specifying the reasons.
“I cut this pomegranate here, I left the small seedlings, but if the seedlings do not last until next year, I will remove them altogether because I am at a loss. I haven’t received any produce for three years. I cut 70 roots a year ago and 170 this year, all these pomegranates that have yellow leaves are diseased, I think that next year I will cut 99% of them” – says the farmer.
A land of 2 acres should provide the farmer with tens of quintals of production, but instead the diseased seedling produces only small fruits that no one wants.
“The sapling has a disease here, look how the skin is gone. If he had not gotten diseased, how many fruits should this seedling have produced? Maybe 30-40 kg, but it made only one kilogram,” adds the farmer.
Baho says he feels economically powerless to get the answer as to why the soil or the seedlings are not yielding the production he wants.
“If the state does soil and seedling analysis for me for free, I can take measures as to what crop to plant. I can’t count how much money I spent on this land, because if I think about it I will have a heart attack,” says the farmer.
In order to make ends meet, Nezir says that he would go to work the land neighboring Greece, since agriculture in his country is with no production.
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