More orchards, less vineyards and arable lands

The number of areas planted with orchards is growing, while the area of vineyards and arable lands is decreasing, reports Info-Prim Neo, citing data from the Land Cadastre. On January 1, Moldova had 2.49 million hectares of farming lands. Orchards occupied 120,000 hectares, vineyards- 113,000 and grasslands 33,100 hectares. During the last year, the area of arable land shrunk by 1,900 hectares, that of vineyards with 2,100 hectares. Orchards total surfaces increased by 1,230 hectares and that fallow grounds by 200 hectares. At the beginning of the year, there were 384,500 peasant (farming) households with a total of 547,200 hectares of land, which is 27.6% of all agricultural lands in Moldova. Most of these households (233,400) had between 1 and 5 hectares of land, 996 households had between 50 and 100 hectares, while 562 had more than 100 hectares. There were also 140 agricultural cooperatives with a total of 117,600 hectares (6.3% of all farming lands), 146 joint ventures (2% of farming lands) and 37,600 limited liability companies (34%). 1.69 million hectares of the farming lands are private property, 270,800 are state property and the rest is property of the administrative-territorial units.