SOIL SURVEY IN ALBANIA - European Soil Portal

EUROPEAN SOIL BUREAU ⎯ RESEARCH REPORT NO. 9 

Soil Survey in Albania 

Pandi Zdruli 

CIHEAM-Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari 

Via Ceglie 9, 70010 Valenzano (BA) Italy 

Introduction 

The history of soil survey investigations in Albania 

dates back to the late 1930s when the first book on 

the soils of the country was published (Zavalani, 

1938), but it was only after the Second World War 

that soil surveys really began. During the 

centralised economic and political system that 

lasted until the early 1990s, soil surveys were 

conducted regularly throughout the country. 

Initially, it was the Soil Science Department at the 

Agricultural University of Tirana that carried out 

these activities and then the Soil Science Institute 

(SSI) of Tirana, founded in 1971, took the lead. 

The latter is under the Ministry of Agriculture and 

Food (MAF) and is the only Institute in the country 

specialised in soil science. 

Until the early 1990s, the Soil Science Institute 

was very well organised, operating throughout the 

country, and conducting pedological surveys and 

fertility tests all over the agricultural land. Other 

activities included soil fertility and plant nutrition, 

drainage and irrigation research, soil microbiology 

studies, erosion control, and topographic surveys. 

There were 26 districts at this time in the country, 

each of them having its own soil laboratory and a 

small specialised staff, among them one general 

soil scientist and one soil chemist. The Institute 

provided scientific and technical guidelines for the 

‘district soil offices’, even though their 

management was handled by local administration. 

With the dawn of political changes and 

privatisation of the economy, commencing at the 

beginning of the last 1990s, the scientific 

institutions of the country went through drastic 

changes and setbacks. Compared with the year 

1990 the Soil Science Institute had experienced 

almost 70% reduction of its staff. The district soil 

offices were non-existent and few soil analyses 

were being made for the arable land. To overcome 

this situation an effort was made to rehabilitate the 

National Soil Laboratory at the SSI offices in 

Tirana. 

This was fully supported by a grant of the United 

States Agency for International Development 

(USAID) in 1998. At present this Laboratory is 

fully operational and can provide soil, water, plant 

and fertiliser analyses for major properties. 

Soil Mapping 

Soil Survey in Albania. Pandi Zdruli 

The first national soil map at scale 1:200,000 was 

compiled in 1958 (Veshi and Spaho, 1988). This 

was followed by intensive soil surveys, especially 

during the period 1971-1991, when detailed soil 

maps from 1:10,000 to 1:50,000 scale, along with 

soil reports, were prepared for each former 

agriculture co-operative, state farm and district. In 

addition to the arable land, soil surveys covered 

also natural pastures and forests, though the 

intensity of soil sampling was less detailed than the 

arable land. This indicates that soils have long 

been considered to be an important part of 

agricultural development. 

After the political change, soil survey and mapping 

was reduced drastically. Except for minimal 

surveys made by the Soil Science Institute, no 

other mapping was made until the mid 1990s when 

the USAID sponsored a national assessment of soil 

resources (Zdruli, 1997a). Another achievement 

was reported in 1998 when for the first time an 

Albanian soil data were introduced into the Soil 

Geographic Database of Europe at scale 

1:1,000,000, sponsored by the European Soil 

Bureau (ESB) at DG-JRC Ispra. 

This was followed in 2001 by a more detailed soil 

survey, under the INTERREG II Programme 

sponsored by the European Commission and the 

Italian Government, aiming at the creation of a 

national soil database at 1:250,000 scale (Figure 1) 

and another much more detailed soil database for 

the coastal areas of the country at scale 1:50,000 

(Zdruli et al., 2003). The ESB was the technical 

coordinator of this project and the Mediterranean 

Agronomic Institute of Bari the implementing 

institution. 

39


Figure 1: Soil map of Albania at scale 1:250,000 according to WRB 

This greatly advanced soil surveys in Albania and 

put the country at a high European standard, being 

the only one in Europe at that moment to have 

completed a national soil database according to the 

‘Georeferenced Soil Database for Europe’ Manual 

of Procedures-Version 1.1. (ESB, 1998, 2000) 

prepared by the Scientific Committee of the ESB. 

Soil Classification 

The national soil classification system and 

methods of soil resource inventory in Albania were 

developed locally with minimal inputs from the 

outside world. The system itself was a surrogate of 

the Russian system of soil classification. Due to 

the size of the country and particularly, to the 

40 


extent of arable land, the Albanian system served 

its purpose. It provided the first assessment of land 

resources and helped to make decisions on 

fertiliser use and land reclamation projects. 

However, modern soil science concepts were not 

used and the translation to other systems, such as 

the FAO Legend (FAO-UNESCO, 1974), World 

Reference Base for Soil Resources – WRB – 

(FAO, ISRIC and ISSS. 1998), and USDA Soil 

Taxonomy (Soil Survey Staff, 1998) proved 

difficult. 

The first attempt to convert the national system of 

soil classification into other well-known systems 

was undertaken between 1994 and 1997. Zdruli


(1997a) provides the following soil orders of Soil Taxonomy for Albania (Table 1). 

The second major study (Zdruli et al., 2003) 

conducted in 2001 revealed the distribution of soils 

according to the WRB (Figure 2). The Albanian 

pedological landscape is very diverse and complex. 

The lower coastal area of the western part of the 

country was mainly formed during the Quaternary 

period by the fluvial activity of several rivers 

flowing to the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. The 

dominant soils are Cambisols, Luvisols, Fluvisols, 

and Phaeozems, associated with Vertisols, 

Solonchaks, Gleysols, Arenosols, Histosols and 

Calcisols. 

On the eastern side of the coastal flatlands extends 

the hilly area covered by Mediterranean shrubs, 

typically Macchia Mediterranea with cultivation of 

olive groves, vineyards, and fruit trees. Soils are 

moderately deep, but highly eroded and 

mismanaged, particularly by overgrazing. 

Luvisols, Cambisols, and Calcisols are the most 

extensive. Mountains are spread throughout 

Albania from the Alps in the north to the central 

and southern areas. At lower altitudes, pine, beech, 

and oak forests predominate whereas the highest 

elevations are mainly just bare rock. Above 

2,000m a.s.l. alpine meadows occur. 

Table 1. Classification of the soils of Albania according to USDA Soil Taxonomy 

Soil Taxonomy orders ha % 

Histosols 3,978 0.5 

Vertisols 58,542 2.0 

Mollisols 208,402 7.0 

Alfisols 498,670 17.0 

Inceptisols 1,015,951 35.0 

Entisols 164,613 6.0 

Miscellaneous 924,640 32.5 

Total land and water area 2,874,796 100 

(photo: P. Zdruli, 2000) 

Photo 1: Typical landscape of the interior valleys in Central Albania. 

In the foreground the deep alluvial/colluvial soils formed by fluvial and erosion activity are seen. In the 

background, hills and mountains with shallow eroded soils occur. The upper elevations are almost bare of 

any vegetation. 


41

LUVISOLS 

25.3% 

CALCISOLS 

0.8% 

PHAEOZEMS 

10.5% 

KASTANOZEMS 

0.1% 

GLEYSOLS 

0.5% 

SOLONCHAKS 

0.4% 

FLUVSOLS 

5.5% 

VERTISOLS 

0.5% 


LEPTOSOLS 

8.8% 

HISTOSOLS 

0.1% 

Figure 2: Distribution of soils according to the WRB 

Use of Existing Soil Data 

Land evaluation of agricultural 

potentials 

Based upon the soil data accumulated during the 

period 1970-1988, the Soil Science Institute in 

Tirana began in 1988 a Physical Land Evaluation 

Study for all the agricultural land of the country. 

The main soil characteristics used for this land 

evaluation exercise were soil depth, thickness of 

the humus horizon, organic matter content at 50cm 

depth, available phosphorus, texture, and available 

moisture content of the topsoil. Soil acidity, 

alkalinity, salinity and the presence of stones are 

main soil constraints in Albania. Relief is a 

determining factor for agriculture; therefore slope 

threshold values were an important part of the 

evaluation process. Finally, climate determined the 

ultimate value of the land. Socio-economic factors 

were not considered in this study. 

At the end of the study all the agricultural land was 

divided into ten classes. Land class 1 is the best for 

agriculture crops while class 10 is the worst. 

Integral parts of this study were the preparation of 

several land evaluation maps, which show the 

classes of land for each farm, district and the entire 

country. The western coastal field areas, occupying 

42 

Ci ties 

0.1% 


CAMBISOLS 

30.6% 

ARENOSOLS 

2.0% 

REGOSOLS 

13.2% 

Water bodi es 

1.3% 

Rock Outcr ops 

about 250,000ha, have been identified with the 

best land classes, which have good potential for 

intensive agriculture. Classes 1 to 4 occupy nearly 

75% of this area. Factors of soil formation, 

physical landscape and generally similar climatic 

conditions are the main factors influencing the 

high land values. Hilly areas occupy roughly 

220,000ha. These areas, along with the interior 

valleys, belong to a variety of land classes, though 

classes 4, 5 and 6 are dominant. The main reason 

for the decreasing land values in the hilly zone is 

slope. Mountain areas covering about 80,000ha 

include the lowest ranking land classes due to 

steep slopes and severe climatic conditions 

(Kaleshi et al., 1992). 

The most important soil constraints, such as 

salinity (about 10,000ha), textural class, soil depth, 

alkalinity (about 60,000ha) in the western coastal 

area, and acidity in about 70,000ha mostly in the 

north-eastern part of the country, were also 

identified. Possible interventions to mitigate the 

negative effects of these constraints may increase 

the land values by one or two classes. 

0.5% 

Land use assessment 

A first attempt to prepare maps for actual land use 

and potential land use planning was done by Zdruli 

(1997b). This was followed by two EU


sponsored projects in 1997 and one in 2003. The 

latter is still in progress and the results are still to 

be reported. 

Zdruli (1997b) reports the distribution of arable 

crops mainly in the coastal area and the interior 

valleys; fruit trees, olive groves and vineyards in 

the hills; and pastures along with forest at the 

higher elevations. 

Under the current conditions, because agricultural 

land in Albania is high fragmented, the 

implementation of large-scale projects on land 

management is almost impossible. One approach 

to the issue of land consolidation, and sustainable 

land use planning, is the development of land use 

policies for single or similar groups of crops to be 

cultivated in suitable agro-ecological regions. 

These methods, in a sense, will overcome the 

obstacle of small land holdings because it will be 

one or few crops to unify large areas and thousands 

of farmers. This depends though, on investments 

and particularly on local and regional markets. 

Fertiliser use 

The history of fertiliser use in Albania began in the 

early 1970's with the construction of two factories, 

one for nitrogen and another for phosphate 

fertilisers. The impact on agricultural production 

was immediate and was reflected in the doubling 

of the yields of major crops over a short period. 

The main fertilisers used were ammonium nitrate, 

urea, single super phosphate and potassium 

chloride and sulphate. Fertiliser use was rather 

stable during the period 1985-1990 but declined 

notably in 1991 to about 33% (Thompson and Xia, 

1992) of the average consumption during the 

previous six years. These declines resulted from 

the break-up of agricultural cooperatives and state 

farms, disruption of fertiliser distribution, lack of 

credit for fertiliser purchases, and relatively slow 

land reform. 

The US-based non-profit International Centre for 

Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development 

(IFDC) is assisting Albania in restructuring its 

fertiliser production and input markets through the 

support for local dealers that replaced the 

governmental controlled enterprises of agricultural 

inputs operating during the old regime. Since 1995 

fertiliser imports along with other inputs have 

increased greatly and continue to provide the 

greatest stimulus to the increase of agricultural 

production. It is important to emphasize that the 

efficiency of fertiliser use has improved 

significantly since the collapse of the centrally 

planned economic system. In addition, soil data 

play a crucial role when establishing the nutrient 

balance of soils, crop yields and the need for 

fertilisers. 

Natural resources 

conservation and 

management 


It is estimated that in Albania, in only one year, 

erosion washes away 1.2 million tons of organic 

carbon, 100,000 tons of nitrate salts, 60,000 tons of 

phosphates, and 16,000 tons of potassium salts 

(Laze and Kovaçi, 1996), while the total amount of 

fertilisers imported or produced by local industry is 

far less. Other studies (Qilimi, 1996) show that soil 

fertility is decreasing mainly because of reductions 

in organic matter content, nitrogen, and potassium 

compared to 20 years ago, resulting in nutrient 

mining of the soils. 

Zdruli and Lushaj (2000) report accelerated soil 

erosion, deforestation, overgrazing, soil pollution, 

re-salinisation, acidification, water logging, 

flooding, urbanisation and soil sealing, nutrient 

mining, and loss of soil fertility as perhaps the 

most alarming environmental problems in Albania. 

The basis for making these assessments remain the 

old and recent soil data supported by the use of a 

Geographic Information System (GIS) and 

fieldwork. 

While the legal status and institutional 

strengthening for the conservation of natural 

resources is making progress, the most 

constraining problem remains law implementation 

and enforcement. Deterioration of the forests and 

natural pastures is the most visible example of 

such effects. The agricultural land in Albania is a 

finite resource and there are no areas remaining 

where the cropland could expand. Many mistakes 

were made in the past by converting natural 

pastures and forests to cropland and the negative 

results of such actions are well known throughout 

the country. (Zdruli et al., 1997b; 1998). 

Future Perspectives 

The most striking process that happened in 

Albanian agriculture after the political upheaval 

was the change in land ownership. There were 

about 550 agricultural co-operatives and state 

farms until 1990 managing all the agricultural land 

(about 700,000ha) of the country. The picture in 

2001 shows the agricultural land being distributed 

among about 450,000 farm families averaging 1,3 

hectares per farm or 0,25ha per person distributed 

in 1.8 million parcels, often far from each other 

(Civici, 2001). 

43


This is the greatest ‘revolution’ in the modern 

times of Albania with respect to private land 

ownership. The process has gone on (and is still 

going on) with controversies on the way in which 

this privatisation was implemented. 

From the soils’ prospective, the change in land 

ownership has brought to difficult times in keeping 

the link between the thousands of newly created 

farmers and the corresponding governmental 

institutions. Even though many farmers recognise 

for instance, the importance of soil fertility and 

land conservation, few of them would consider 

paying for a soil survey investigation on their land. 

Consequently, the opinion of the governmental 

structures remains that public funds or 

international donors should sponsor soil survey 

programmes. This becomes a priority especially 

with the pace of increase in land degradation and 

environmental damage of Albania’s natural 

resources. 

In many areas, Albania is blessed with fertile soils, 

but the total amount of arable land is finite and 

may not be able to support the increase in 

population expected in the coming years. At 

present, the country relies heavily on agricultural 

imports, which could make it vulnerable to local or 

regional crises, putting food security at risk. To 

References 

Civici. A. (2001). Country report Albania 2001. In: 

Développement et politiques agro-alimentaires 

dans la region méditerranéenne. Centre 

International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques 

Mediterranéennes (CIHEAM). Paris, France. 

ESB (1998, 2000). Georeferenced Soil Database 

for Europe. Manual of Procedures, version 1.1. 

European Soil Bureau Research Report No.. 5, 

EUR 18092 EN, 184pp. Office for the Official 

Publications of the European Communities, 

Luxembourg. 

FAO-UNESCO. (1974). Soil map of the World, 

1:5,000,000. 10 Volumes. Food and 

Agriculture Organization of the United 

Nations, Rome, Italy. 

FAO, ISRIC and ISSS. (1998). World Reference 

Base for Soil Resources: World Soil Resources 

Report 84, Rome, 88 pp 

Kaleshi, V., Dubali, A. and Zdruli, P. (1992). Land 

evaluation of Albania. Results and 

perspectives. AGRONOMIA. No. 1 (In 

Albanian). 

Laze, P. and Kovaçi, V. (1996). Soil erosion and 

physico-chemical nature of eroded materials. 

9th Conference of the International Soil 

Conservation Organization (ISCO), Bonn, 

Germany. Extended Abstracts. 

44 

reduce the misuse of land and enhance sustainable 

land use and management in Albania, a soil 

protection policy should be developed and 

implemented, addressing the following: 

1. Detailed land resource assessments; 

2. Monitoring of land and water quality; 

3. Awareness among land users regarding 

environmental protection; 

4. Support (extension) services to assist land 

owners and users; 

5. Implementation of sustainable land use and 

management practices; 

6. Drafting a national natural resource 

management and land use policy. 

Acknowledgement 


The assistance of Prof. Dr. Sherif Lushaj and the 

staff of the Soil Science Institute in Tirana, 

Albania, is greatly appreciated in the preparation of 

this report. 

Qilimi, B. (1996). Appraisal of soil fertility in 

Albania. PhD thesis. 155pp. 

Soil Survey Staff. (1998). Keys to Soil Taxonomy. 

Eighth Edition. 326pp. US Department of 

Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation 

Service, Washington DC. 

Thompson, T. and Xia, Wan. (1992). The Socioeconomic 

dimensions of agricultural 

production in Albania. A national survey. 

International Fertilizer Development Centre. 

31pp. 

Veshi, L. and Spaho, Sh. (1988). Pedology. 

Agricultural University of Tirana. Tirana, 

Albania. 574pp. 

Zavalani, D. (1938). Die landwirtschaftlichen 

Verhaltnnisse Albaniens. Doctorial 

dissertation. Berlin, Germany 

Zdruli, P. Benchmark soils of Albania. (1997a). 

Internal monograph of the USDA Natural 

Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), 

Washington DC and the International Fertilizer 

Development Centre (IFDC), Muscle Shoals, 

Alabama. 2 Volumes. 293pp. 

Zdruli, P., H. Eswaran, R. Almaraz, and P. Reich. 

1997b. Developing the prerequisites for 

sustainable land use in Albania. Soil Use and 

Management. 13, 48-55.


Zdruli, P., Almaraz, R. and Eswaran, H. (1998). 

Developing land resource information for 

sustainable land use in Albania. 9 th Conference 

of the International Soil Conservation 

Organization (ISCO), Bonn, Germany. 

CATENA VERLAG, 35447 Reiskirchen, 

Advances in GeoEcology 31, 153-159. 

Zdruli, P. and Lushaj, Sh. (2000). Status of soil 

degradation in Albania. In: Soil in Central and 

Eastern European countries, in the New 

Independent States, in Central Asian countries 

and in Mongolia. European Commission, Joint 

Research Centre (Lahmar, R., Dosso, M., 

Ruellan, A. and Montanarella, L. (eds). EUR 

19732 EN.p.53-63 


Zdruli, P., Lushaj, Sh., Pezzuto, A., Fanelli, D., 

D’Amico, O., Filomeno, O., De Santis, S., 

Todorovic, M., Nerilli, E., Dedaj, K. and 

Seferi, B. (2003). Preparing a georeferenced 

soil database for Albania at scale 1:250,000 

using the European Soil Bureau Manual of 

Procedures 1.1. In: OPTIONS 

Méditerranéennes. SERIE A: Mediterranean 

Seminars, Volume A 54. Selected papers of the 

7 th International Meeting on Soils with 

Mediterranean Type of Climate- (Zdruli, P., 

Steduto, P. and Kapur, S. (eds). Centre 

International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques 

Mediterranéennes (CIHEAM). Paris, France. 

ISBN: 2-853552-261-X 

45

SOIL SURVEY IN ALBANIA - European Soil Portal

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?