AIDA was approached by students from AgroParisTech (Department of Comparative Agriculture) to realize an Agrarian diagnostic in the Balkans. Our NGO, despite it’s limited own reserves, decided to respond favorably to this request and, drawing on various connections with Montenegro, supported an agrarian diagnostic of the remarkable Sinjajevina pastoral massif.

This massif is a vast limestone plateau of approximately 600 km², carved by deep valleys. It presents itself as a vast expanse of grass and rocks, offering both an extraordinary landscape and abundant grazing resources for ruminant livestock. In 2025, Laetitia Dubois and Daphnée Séailles (agronomist engineers from AgroParisTech) conducted an agrarian diagnostic of the massif. This study, the result of five months of fieldwork, is beautifully illustrated and highlights the emblematic landscapes of this mountainous region, its contemporary history, and local agro-pastoral dynamics. This work was supervised by François Lerin and Orianne Crouteix (AIDA association), Pablo Dominguez (anthropologist at DivEC – Cultural Diversity and Evolution), and Milan Marković (Faculty of Biotechnology at the University of Montenegro). It was made possible with the support of Vuk Miletić, particularly for translation during fieldwork. The project also received support from the French Embassy in Podgorica (for translation activities during field surveys).

This study (available below) aims to understand the agricultural activity that partly shapes this remarkable landscape. The agriculture practiced in the region is family-based, combining crop farming and livestock, with a focus on mountain pastoralism. However, the pastures of Sinjajevina are currently underutilized. Although herder families are still present in the valleys, only about a hundred now migrate to the plateau for summer grazing, and this number continues to decline.

The study also revealed that:

1. Production systems are extremely resource-efficient pastoral livestock systems;
2. A significant portion of farm products are self-consumed, accounting for 20% to 70% of the family agricultural income;
3. While motorization increases physical labor productivity, it is insufficient to address the labor shortage and challenging environmental conditions;
4. Farms in Sinjajevina are beginning to specialize (e.g., stopping sheep milking, abandoning sheep farming in favor of dairy cattle, selling calves at increasingly younger ages), leading to notable differences in their economic outcomes;
5. Despite promising economic results, the social and material conditions of this agricultural activity are currently insufficient to sustain it in the long term. Yet, the unique landscape of the Sinjajevina massif cannot be conceived without the pastoral livestock farming that shapes it.

Photo (banner): The northern part of the Sinjajevina plateau, with Durmitor National Park in the background (Montenegro), May 2025 / François Lerin