Agriculture ministry says Moldova expects wheat harvest up to 600,000 tons

Chisinau, 11 June /MOLDPRES/ - The Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment Ministry (MADRM) forecasts an overall wheat harvest of up to 600,000 tons. Competent minister Ion Perju made statements to this effect at a meeting on the situation in the sector, in the context of the hydrological drought recorded, summoned by Prime Minister Ion Chicu.    

„We had more working meetings with producers and researchers in the field, including during visits to the territory, with whom we discussed the situation in the agriculture, triggered by the severe drought from the last autumn – spring of the 2019-2020 agricultural year, weather calamities, as well as the improvement measures necessary. According to data unveiled by the State Hydrometeorological Service, in early last May, an average of 80 mm of precipitation was recorded, with the exceeding of the multi-annual monthly average. Thus, the situation on the sowed lands has improved, both, due to the rains and the agro-technical measures taken by producers. A good deal of the crops fully or partially recover, which allows revising the forecast of global harvest to an optimistic variant of 600,000 tons,’’ the agriculture minister said.     

At the same time, Perju informed about the fact that about 415,000 hectares had been sowed with winter crops in the 2019-2020 agricultural year. The drought and the spring frost hit about 215,000 hectares: at the level of 25 per cent in the northern region and up to 60-80 per cent in the central and southern regions, according to data provided by the district departments for agriculture and nourishment. Also, about 19,000 hectares were strongly hit, of which about 10,300 hectares of wheat were re-sowed.  

As for the horticultural sub-sector, the official noted that the spring frost hit up to 80 per cent of the areas: apricots – 70-80 per cent; peaches – 50 per cent; sweet cherries – 40-50 per cent; apples – 25 per cent. According to forecasts, the overall fruits harvest, including the grapes harvest, will be diminished by 15-20 per cent in 2020, against the average of the last years. The global harvest of vegetables will be at the level of the last years, with a significant increase in the production on protected field, proceeding from the specific feature that these areas are usually irrigated.   

The participants in the meeting discussed also the need to create a viable and accessible mechanism of insurances in agriculture, possibility to reschedule payments for support projects in agriculture, recover the value added tax, subsidize the interest on loans provided by banking and non-bank institutions, possibility of using underground waters for irrigation by dropping, as well as introduce new approaches in the models of subsidization in agriculture. In the context, Ion Perju specified that MADRM had worked out an action plan with concrete proposals of mitigating the consequences of the natural calamities and backing the economic agents from the sector, with the demand of involvement of all state institutions related.   

For his part, the prime minister announced the cabinet’s intention to support the creation of an accessible mechanism of insurance in agriculture and proposals to subsidize projects based on modern technologies in agriculture from funds of the Agency of Interventions and Payments for Agriculture.  

„We elaborated and approved a string of measures meant to back the business, including in agriculture. The subsidization of interests on loans and the VAT’s recovery are some of them. I ask MADRM and the Finance Ministry to organize training sessions in Moldova’s regions, in order to inform farmers about how they can benefit from the current instruments and those under elaboration. I support the idea to create a reserve seeds fund and I believe that we must develop capacities of producing native seeds,’’ Ion Chicu said.    

Moldova’s farming sector was hit by the drought, recorded since the last autumn, as well as by the lack of snow in winter. Also, most of the current spring was determined by a yellow code of hydrological drought.