On 1 October 2019, CNVP Albania organized a training on Organic Cultivation of MAPs in Shkoder. Participants in this training included a wide range of stakeholders varying from representatives of Private Business such as MEIA Company operating in Tirana and Shkoder, LNL Herbs operating in Shkoder, State institutions such as Forestry school in Shkoder, Centre for Transfer of Technologies in Shkoder, Agriculture Extension Service and Farmers’ association such as “Reci prodhimtar”. 
The training syllabus covered the main principles and standards of MAPs organic cultivation, EU standards, and regulations, Albanian laws and regulations, advantages of product certification, comparative analyses of Organic and conventional products and markets, etc. The training was combined with a field visit to a Sage plantation in Koplik where the participants had the opportunity to see first-hand the products and discuss with each other about different aspects of organic cultivation, marketing, business-farmer relationships, etc. 
There are high-end market demands for different MAP varieties which grow very well in Albania. These market demands cannot be met by only collecting wild MAP varieties and their cultivation is an important solution. Organic cultivation of MAPs not only responds well to end market demands and brings more incomes to the sector stakeholder’s especially rural families, but it also helps in diminishing the pressure on the wild MAPs which are in danger of extinction. 
CNVP is trying to address this issue by undertaking a rich menu of interventions through Sida funded Local Economic Development –LED- Project. CNVP is using Market System Approach which works through public and private actors to generate sustainable large-scale impact. It is analysis-led and interventions are developed to respond and align with the capabilities and incentives of those public, private, and civil society actors, and on how systems can work better to deliver impacts for disadvantaged people. About 55 farmers in Tirana, Shkoder, Korca, and Gramsh will be supported with MAP seedlings of Lavender, Laurels, Cian, Calendula, Rosemary, Thymus and Sage. A very close collaboration between MAP companies and farmers is being established by introducing “contract farming”. 
This training was organized in the framework of LED a Sida funded project implemented in 4 regions in Albania