Albania Halfway across the world, a former communist country is expected to produce high-quality seeds of wheat, corn, and alfalfa with help from Mississippi State. Albania, in turn, may become a market for U.S.-exported seeds, said Bennie Keith, of the Pace Seed Technology Laboratory.
Agriculture accounts for about one-third of the national income.
Recently, six technicians from Albania's new National Seed Testing Laboratory began the first of two weeks training at the seed technology laboratory. The university helped establish the Albanian lab under the auspices of the United States Agency for International Development. Others are Kansas State and the universities of Idaho and Illinois. The consortium is charged with reducing the loss of agricultural products once they leave the farm and with adding value to agricultural production in countries around the world. That effort was coordinated by the International Fertilizer Development Center, said Keith.