The results obtained in agriculture in 2016 are assessed as good. The food wheat harvest this year came to 710,000-790,000 tonnes. The data were presented in a festive event held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry to mark the Farmer’s Day, IPN reports.

As many as 57,000 tonnes of winter and spring barley were gathered from an area of 82,000 hectares, up 30% on 2015. The pea harvest was much larger. 25,000 tonnes of peas were collected from 18,400 hectares. The corn crop was 3.7 tonnes per hectare, with the harvest totaling 1.6 million tonnes. The average sunflower harvest was 1.9 tonnes per hectare, but the crop would have been higher if the sunflower hadn’t been affected by natural disasters. The hydrological drought of 2016 affected the sugar beet harvest that came to about 32 tonnes per hectare.

The harvest of technical sorts of grapes this year increased to 360,000 tonnes, while the table grapes harvest was 70,000 tonnes, with most of these being exported to the EU. Thus, exports rose by 24.8%.

Attending the event, chairman of the commission for agriculture and food industry Radu Mudreac said that among the most serious problems faced in agriculture are the non-involvement of young people in agricultural activities and continuous migration of the population. The overdue agricultural subsidies, limited access to financing and the fact that the Moldovan high-quality products are not accepted on all the markets are also among the problems witnessed in this sector.