Though a small greenhouse can extend the growing season and provide farmers with higher profits, significant barriers have prevented this from becoming a reality for most Moldovan farmers.
Developing the country’s capacity to extend the harvesting season would increase domestic output and lower imports. But local producers lacked the experience, finance and knowledge of modern technologies to make use of this opportunity—until CNFA stepped in to fill the gaps with the USAID-funded Agribusiness Development Project (ADP).
ADP provided finance in small grants, the National Rural Agency (ACSA) offered experienced consultants for training and Moldova had plenty of small family farms ready to work hard for a better future.
The program that synergized these three forces has a long name (Increasing Quality and Quantity of Agricultural Products for Export at Farm Level) but is widely known simply as the DemoPlots Project.
In order to promote the use of modern technologies, 100 demonstration plots were chosen from all over Moldova. Approximately half of the farmers grew vegetables in open field conditions and the other half in plastic-covered greenhouses. Each beneficiary received a $2,000 grant from ADP that was used for purchasing modern equipment.
On average, participants contributed about $3,000 either in kind or in cash to expand total new investment to about $5,000 per plot. The 100 family farms were carefully selected out of 270 applicants. ACSA consultants provided training and supervision during all production phases.
New technologies included drip irrigation, high-quality plastic films to cover the soil and retain soil moisture, heating equipment and other technical innovations.
“Nobody considers clamps important,” said Ion Ambrosie, DemoPlots beneficiary from Tintareni, Telenesti region. “But earlier I was wasting two to three days manufacturing wooden ones and nailing them into the plastic greenhouse cover. It consumed time and destroyed the cover of my greenhouse. Using clamps extends the life of the plastic cover by one or two years.”
Using the knowledge he gained from the DemoPlots Project, Ambrosie built two adjoining greenhouses with a drip irrigation system.
“I got the same quantity of tomatoes from my 400-square-meter greenhouses than I did from 1.5 hectares of open field production, but with better quality and much a better price,” he said.
Most beneficiaries used drip irrigation for the first time and were amazed by the results. Compared to sprinkler or furrow irrigation, drip irrigation uses much less water, reduces the risk of crop diseases, saves time and increases yield.
“During previous years I was harvesting an average of 8-10 kg/m2 of cucumbers in open field, and my personal record was 12 kg/ m2,” said Iurii Popusoi, a DemoPlots beneficiary from Susleni, Orhei region. “In 2008 after installing the drip irrigation system I had a yield of 16 kg/m2.”
More than 6,000 farmers attended 239 field days where the results of the demonstration plots were on display. An independent assessment of the project identified 2,500 indirect beneficiaries, i.e. farmers who attended field days, seminars or learned directly from their neighboring demonstration plots. The vast majority intend to adopt new technologies (72%) and are oriented to greenhouse protected field production (74%), seen as more profitable than open field production.
