Moldova cultivates too much sunflower, MAFI

Moldovan farmers cultivate too much sunflower, and this is a problem for the natural crop rotation, stated Ivan Guci, consultant at the Phytotechny Products Service of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI), quoted by Info-Prim Neo. The specialist claims that, according to the natural crop rotation, only 10 out of every 100 hectares should be cultivated with sunflower. Ivan Guci says that, in Moldova, this norm is not respected, fact which leads to the soil’s withering. Out of 100 hectares, 60 should be cultivated with cereals, 10 hectares with permanent cultures, and maximum 20 should be cultivated with technical cultures, such as canola and sunflower. Sunflower extracts many nutrients from the soil. It is recommended that it is cultivated in the same soil not more than once in every 5 years. The excess cultivation of sunflower started from the parceling of fields, and that’s when the crop rotation started to change. In order to allow the soil to regain strength after it hosted sunflower culture, the cultivation of cereals, alfalfa, or clover is recommended. Practice shows that our crop rotations are not being respected; monoculture is used, sunflower being cultivated on the same field for several years. Moldova cultivates too little fodder grain, says Ivan Guci, their share in the crop rotation having fallen from 8% to 2%.One fodder culture is alfalfa, it being permanent, allowing to be cultivated for up to 5 years on the same field. Other fodder cultures are clover and Sudan grass. The MAFI specialist claims that these cultures share should be equal to that of peas.