For several years, Altin Prenga had brought back the tradition of rice cultivation in Zadrimë i Lezhë. It was he and his older brother who brought back a tradition before the 90s, but now businessman Altin Prenga says that rice cultivation has failed. In a shared post on Facebook, Prenga writes that this will be the last year they will plant rice as they are tired of fighting.
But, why did this initiative of Altin Prenga, who has created a model in agrotourism with 'Fairy Frost', fail?
The reason for the lack of water in this period is the 2010 concession for an Austrian company that does not allow water to be poured into the Zadrima field from the Vaut Deja hydropower plant.
"We failed this year with rice and it will be the last year we will plant it because we are tired of fighting! We will stick to Chinese rice because that is how our system is built.
This is because someone from the government of that time in the 2010s gave a concession to an Austrian company where the millions of cubic meters of water flowing into Zadrima from the Vaut deja hydropower plant and used in the summer for irrigation can now not be used for a single drop of water in September. The concession is a shame, I understand the excess water, but to take it away from agriculture is a crime.
I thank my friend Professor Filip Haxhari for supporting us in this initiative and humbly apologize. In Italy where he leads the most prestigious institute in Europe with a team of over 40 scientists and where their genetic bank had seeds from 1880", writes Prenga.