Agriculture can be addressed as part of a long-term strategy only. Analysis by Info-Prim Neo

The agrarian sector cannot be a priority for the National Development Plan (NDP) for 2008-2011, considers Iurie Muntean, representative of the Centre for Productivity and Competitiveness of Moldova. According to him, the agriculture can be addressed only as part of a long-term strategy. During recent debates on the NDP, the expert said that in the present conditions the agriculture can be rewarding from economic viewpoint if practiced on consolidated lots, of at least 5,000 hectares. “We do not have such plots of land in Moldova at present and will not have in the next years,” the cited source stressed. Iurie Muntean said that personally he knows only one economic agent that managed to consolidate 5,000 hectares, but this process took him over seven years. According to him, the consolidation of the agricultural land is a prospect for Moldova, but this will take many years. [The deplorable state of agriculture is the result of state policies] Economic analyst Viorel Chivriga considers that the deplorable situation in agriculture is a result of the state policies. He says that the national system of economic organisation in agriculture is at an incipient stage. As a result of the land reform, the socialist-like agriculture was uprooted. More that a million people became land owners. Now Moldova has everything: peasant farmsteads, cooperatives, joint stock companies, limited liability companies, private companies, state-owned agricultural enterprises, kolkhozes etc. Yet, there is no viable model of economic organisation that would be considered ‘centre of attraction’ for different agricultural entities from rural areas. For this reason, there is no profitable agriculture. According to Viorel Chivriga, the drawbacks of the agrarian reform caused multiple problems to the new agricultural entities that substituted partially the kolkhozes and the state-run enterprises. The reduced dimensions of the plots farmed by the peasants and other categories of land owners (as of 1 January 2005, about 500,000 land owners possessed 682,480 hectares of agricultural land), but also the limited capacity to sell the agricultural products contribute to a stagnant agriculture. On the other hand, neither the large enterprises achieve great results. Under such conditions, the state has the right and obligation to intervene, on condition that it assumes entire responsibility. [Consolidation of farms will take place in three stages] The agricultural land consolidation strategy approved recently by the Government is to be implemented in three stages. The first stage will include the working out and implementation of pilot-projects in compliance with the current legislation. The second stage will include the creation of a legislative-normative framework and of the methodical-scientific basis, the information of the population, the setting up of commissions that will coordinate the works at local level. Favourable technical-material and financial conditions for consolidating all Moldova’s lands will be created at the third stage. Moldova now has about 1.1 mln owners that possess 1.6 mln hectares of land altogether. The land is parcelled out into over 3 mln lots of 0.3-0.5 hectares in area. The lots are estimated at about 2 bln lei. But they are not fully included in the market circuit owing to the excessive parcelling of the agricultural land. The state plans to spend in the future about 5.5 mln EUR of the resources attracted from donors to take the general agricultural census. In accordance with the world practice, the general agricultural census is an indispensable measure in assessing the situation in agriculture. A general census enables to obtain qualitative data about the size of different types of agricultural fields – arable lands, orchards, vineyards etc; about the total number of sorts of fruit bearing trees and of grapevines; about the stock of birds and animals and about the number of people working in agriculture. [State proposes formulating a sustainable development strategy for the agricultural sector] Experts say the right solution would be to adopt European agricultural practices, improve marketing in farm production, consolidate farmsteads and expand irrigation areas, etc. In response to the experts’ opinion, President Vladimir Voronin has recently launched a proposal regarding a strategy for the sustainable development of the agricultural sector. He considered it necessary to overcome the consequences of this year’s severe drought and to ensure the sustainable development of the agindustrial sector. Voronin also stressed the need for the establishment of a state committee that would administrate and supervise the process of drafting the aforementioned strategy.