The fruit growers called on the Government to constitute a commission that would deal with the amendment of the legislation on the use of water from terrestrial aquatic reservoirs for irrigation and to draft legislation and think up the mechanism for using underground waters for irrigation. Such solutions are proposed in the resolution of the national conference “Opportunities and challenges in Moldova’s fruit growing sector in the context of the integration into the EU”, which was held recently, IPN reports.
The commission should also work out a national strategy for developing the irrigation infrastructure. According to the resolution, the lack of water sources is the main problem faced in the fruit growing sector of Moldova. The access to open sources of water for irrigation is difficult and bureaucratized, while the underground waters cannot be used because there is no normative farmworker in this regard.
“The resolution is based on a general report of the workshops we staged in the course of the year,” said the director of the Association of Fruit Producers and Exporters “Moldova Fruct” Iurie Fala.
Under the document, the fruit producers do not have access to professional consultancy services and expertise because the national research and development institutions are poorly developed and the producers have to test the new technologies by taking risks. They use production means without analyzing soil, water, plants and fruits. “The solution is to create a research and development center outfitted with labs and scientific personnel able to provide the necessary services, based on a public-private partnership and with financial and methodological support from the donors,” says the resolution.
Another problem highlighted in the document is the fact that the fruit growers are unable to build access ways to the production and post-harvest infrastructure, water, gas and electric power networks without which it is impossible to develop a profitable business in the fruit growing sector. To solve this problem, it is proposed that the state and development partners should work out strategies for developing the physical and services infrastructure so as to support the rural sector.
The Association of Fruit Producers and Exporters “Moldova Fruct” suggests creating a working group that would work out a plan of concrete measures for transforming the National Food Safety Agency into a partner of the fruit exporters, with a network of labs recognized at foreign level.
The national conference was organized by the Association “Moldova Fruct” within the project “Strengthening of the negotiation power of fruit growers owing to the implementation of European cooperation and self-government practices” that is carried out with the support of USAID through the Moldova Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society Project that is implemented by FHI 360.
