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MOLDOVA 2015

CEEM Report for NIAB Trust 2015 - by John Law and Mike Day

 

Introduction and Travel

We visited Moldova again from the 23rd April to 30th April using a direct flight of Moldovan Airways. The aircraft was an elderly Boeing which took an hour longer than scheduled but nevertheless got us there safely!

We had great difficulty changing Euros into lei and needed to visit three banks. Evidently the uncertainty in the value of the lei accounted for the first two banks having none or very few in stock. Since then Moldova has been victim of a massive fraud with $1.5 billion disappearing from three banks. This equals an eighth of their GDP.

 

Agricultural report

  • The area had experienced severe gales in the early spring. This resulted in serious loss of polythene from many of the tunnels including one of the new large span units we financed at Hiratop. The grower Oleg had lost half of his tomato crop, 2400 plants at the 60 cm, 3rd or 4th truss stage. We were able to contribute towards re cladding and he will replant for autumn cropping.

  • Our two main testing sites with Oleg at Hiratop and Daniel at Chisinau both recorded trials of cucumbers, tomatoes and salads which were reported at our Training Day.

  • The Training Day at Burlacu was again well attended (33) and beside presentations from Oleg and Daniel, John talked about commercial strawberry and raspberry production and Mike about salad developments in the UK

  • UK seed donated by Suttons and Mr Fothergills was sent by DHL, it arrived safely and was distributed at the Training Day and on advisory visits.

  • A new site was supported in the village of Taraclia and funding donated to sink a well and erect tunnels.

  • We planted demonstration plots of:

  • French Bean, Sweet Corn, Beetroot, Radish, Lettuce, Leaf beet, Pumpkin, Courgette, Courgette, Squash, Squash, Melon, Water Melon, various Herbs.

  • We searched for and found plants of Gromwel,l  Lithospermum arvense, which NIAB are collecting for a breeding programme. We trained locals to identify the plants and hopefully collect seed later in the year.

 

 

Mayor

 

We had a meeting with the Mayor and discussed:

  • The water project part funded by CEEM in 2012, they have Romanian money to complete the project.

  • Tree project: The community wood is struggling and has been damaged by fire.

  • His tunnel and vegetable crops and informed him about the seminar planned for tomorrow night.

  • Anything else that we could partner.

 

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