Plow became an enemy of Moldovan agriculture, minister

The inventing of plow was a revolution in agriculture in the period when the people didn’t have other tools for cultivating the land. Now the plow is the enemy of agriculture and the technical-scientific progress made sowing without plow possible. The new, no-till methods enable to conserve the humidity in soil, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vasile Bumacov stated for Info-Prim Neo. According to the minister, a large quantity of water is lost by plowing. Given that the summers in Moldova become hotter, the largest part of the farmland is destroyed by drought. “Moldova has a huge source of water, which is the snow. All the water must be collected and used efficiently. We dry the water out, the rain washes the fertile layer away and we then speak about the subsidization of agriculture by 400 million lei. The rain causes damage of billions of lei,” said Vasile Bumacov. He also said that the no-till technology used by the Moldovan farmers allows conserving the soil by vegetal remains owing to which the soil does not become dry in summer. They also represent natural fertilizers. According to the new technology, the soil is plowed once in four years. “This year there have been 80 degrees of heat on the surface of the soil. Under the vegetal waste, the temperature is 30 degrees. Thus, the water is not lost. We needed plow, but it went against nature. They do not plow in nature,” stated the minister. The farmers who will implement the no-till technology will receive from the state by 10% more financial resources than those who will use the traditional methods.