About 135,000 families of farmers received assistance as part of UN project

Approximately 135,000 vulnerable families of farmers received assistance as part of the UN project “Relief and Technical Assistance Response to the Drought in Moldova”, Info-Prim Neo reports. Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Anatolie Gorodenco thanked the international donors for lending a hand to the Moldovan farmers in such a difficult time. More than 400,000 people received packages of winter wheat and maize seeds, fertilizers, fodder and fuel to work 19,200 hectares of agricultural land. Among these were 21,000 farmers from the Transnistrian region. For the first time, the population from the eastern districts of Moldova was included in a humanitarian assistance project of such a scale. A number of 18,500 pregnant women and nursing mothers benefited from food packages as part of the project. UN Resident Coordinator in Moldova Kaarina Immonen said that the project was financed by several countries and development agencies. The partners cooperated because they were aware they could help insure the food security of thousands of families in need. She also said that UNDP Moldova is now looking into possibilities of contributing to the implementation of projects that will aim at building a sustainable agriculture that could make Moldova less dependent on weather conditions. The UN project was financially supported by the European Commission, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the Governments of the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, Finland and Austria, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The project was managed by the UNDP in partnership with the FAO, UNFPA, UNICEF, other UN agencies. The UN project provided around 10 million US dollars’ worth of aid in all.