The reforms aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the Moldovan exports, attracting investments to the sector and integrating into the EU at commercial level will be supported by the Competitive Agriculture Project that was presented in a meeting staged by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry on April 22. The total cost of the project is US$27.4 million. US$18 million of this sum is lent by the World Bank. The Global Environment Fund and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency provided grants, while the Government of Moldova contributed US$2 million to the project, IPN reports.
“The World Bank shows perseverance and continues to support the agricultural sector and the complex reforms done in this important sector for the Moldovan economy, which will make it competitive. We closed the negotiations with the World Bank on one more project that will help the farmers to overcome the consequences of the drought. The project has a budget of US$10 million and we hope that this money will be soon available,” said acting Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov.
Liviu Gumovschi, executive director of the Consolidated Union for Implementing Agriculture Projects financed by the World Bank, said that the launched project has three components: support for the reforms in the area of food safety and quality; support for the efforts aimed at improving the market opportunities for farmers by making investments in the modernization of the post-harvest infrastructure, and increasing productivity through sustainable land management.
“A sum of US$8 million will be used to give grants to groups of producers. Sixty groups of producers will be supported within this project so as to stimulate the association in agriculture and the institutional development of such groups. The grant for a group of producers will be at most US$350,000,” stated Gumovschi.
The Competitive Agriculture Project will be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Environment. It will last until June 2017.
