Help from outside was crucial for Moldovan farmers in 2012

Moldova's foreign partners helped farmers a lot with overcoming the effects of this summer's drought. “ The EU, the United States, Romania, France, Italy, Poland all came to our support”, stated Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov in an interview with Info-Prim Neo, {published on 27 December} as part of the Year 2012 in the life of Moldova and its people” Series. “The sums are much higher than 126 million lei, which will have been paid to farmers by May. But we need more”. According to Bumacov, in order to make agriculture policies more efficient, more money is needed. “We are in the process of negotiating with the EU for launching the European Neighbourhood Program for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD) Program. It will enable 6 countries of the Eastern Partnership to receive financial sources, which will be allocated from EU's 2014-2020 sources for agriculture and rural development programs”. Vasile Bumacov noted that in 2012 Moldova experienced one of the severest droughts in our country's history. “We lost corn and first group cereals as we have never before. “We have registered losses of 3 billion lei from corn alone. Obviously, the farmers have had it rough. In such situations, when people face difficulties, I try to find the positive aspect, which is this year's good wine”. In such situations when weather conditions affect agriculture, Vasile Bumacov says it's important to adapt to nature. “We have ignored, in the last 60 years, our greatest treasure – our soils, and failed to switch to technologies that would grant us gould yields even during drought years. We are currently abusing our soils, whereas they have to feed the future generations as well. Soils must feed people in the CIS, and the EU. We must think about Moldova. If we are saying that we want nature to help us, we must preserve it. Speaking of high-quality agriculture, a field in which we are very competitive, meaning fruit, vegetables, requires using savings-friendly irrigation systems, through dripping, through the most modern technologies invented to save water”, said Agriculture Minister Vasile Bumacov in his interview with Info-Prim Neo. Vasile Bumacov further stated that the irrigation policy will remain a top priority for the Ministry of Agriculture.