Over 17,000 agricultural producers received assistance as part of “From Farmer to Farmer” project

Since 1999, when the “From Farmer to Farmer” project was initiated, 260 Americans consultants have came to Moldova to help the local producers to modernize and develop their businesses, the national coordinator of the project Nadejda Mocanu told a summing up conference. The program was implemented by Citizen’s Network for Foreign Affairs (CNFA) and financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Mocanu said that the American volunteers recruited from 50 states of the United States, including Columbia district, are private individuals that own firms and agricultural enterprises. They offered advice in different areas to 64 businesses, helping attract investments of 4.5 million dollars (from different foreign donors). Eighty-five new products have been launched by the given businesses, which raised profits by 1.8 million dollars and created 200 new workplaces. The program participants worked with 37 farmers organizations, informal farmers groups, production cooperatives, processing companies. A number of 17,000 farmers and land owners have benefited from assistance during nine years. They were offered advice in business management, marketing and technology transfer, development of production cooperatives, launch of products with a high value added, identification of new markets and partners for selling agricultural products. Emilia Cainarean, the head of the Agriculture Ministry’s Foreign Economic Relations, said that the program was very important for the Moldovan agricultural producers. She stressed that the American volunteers taught the Moldovan farmers how to reduce production costs owing to which many of the Moldovan products are uncompetitive. “I was glad to find out that the Cimislia company Camedones, which produces dried fruit, reduced energy costs by 20% and that other companies improved the seeding material and reviewed the catalogue of produced goods,” she said. Conrad Fritsch, the director of CNFA Moldova, said that the Moldovan agricultural producers are very receptive and willing to learn modern technologies. He said that the project “From Farmer to Farmer” could be continued. If not, there are other programs in agriculture financed by USAID,” he added.