The Agency for Agricultural and Rural Development was created on 30.12.2008 on the basis of V.K.M. No. 1443 “On the creation, organization and operation of the Agency for Agricultural and Rural Development (ARDA), in Instruction No. 3, dated 30.12.2008 of the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Protection.

This institution rigorously follows and implements the Law on Agriculture No. 9817, dated 22.10.2007 of the relevant VKM “On determining the basic criteria of the sectors to be supported and measures of benefit from the fund of the program for agriculture and rural development “, as well as “On the management of the support fund for agriculture”, defined with relevant instructions.

In support of Article 100 of the Constitution, point 3 of Article 21 of Law no. 9817, dated 22.10.2007 “On agriculture and rural development”, and Article 10 of Law no. 9000, dated 30.1.2003 “On the organization and functioning of the Council of Ministers”, with the proposal of the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Protection, Council of Ministers.

2009: ARDA began aligning its organizational structure and its managerial and technical capacities with EU accreditation standards.

2011: ARDA presents in Brussels the first accreditation package from the IPARD Program 2007-2013, prepared according to EU rules, a package that included 224 documents with 1,200 pages.

2012 – 2014: The implementation of the IPARD-like Project has been approved as a project in the form of a grant scheme as an opportunity for Albanian Structures in the preparation and entry of EU funds. Total budget: 8.6 million Euros, of which 6.4 million Euros from the EU and 2.2 million Euros from the Albanian Government.

2016: Accreditation packages are sent for 3 Measures from the IPARD II Program, Measure 1-Investment in physical assets on the farm, Measure 3-Investment in physical assets in the processing and marketing of agricultural and livestock products and Measure 7- Farm diversification and development business.

2018: Arda is accredited for the IPARD II Program, for the decentralized implementation of the budget of 94.6 million Euros, of which 71 million Euros is the EU Contribution and 23.6 million Euros is the National Contribution.

2019: 39 Investments of 39 million Euros have been contracted from the first call for IPARD II, the amount of the Grant is 21.8 Million Euros.

2020: Accreditation of the Technical Assistance Measure.