The Private Farmer Commercialization Program (PFCP), a $12 million project active from 2001 to 2004, assisted Moldova’s economic growth and stability by establishing value chain linkages between hundreds of thousands of newly landed farmers, credit and inputs suppliers, food processors, storage operators and distributors and cash markets. PFCP had two major components: 1) an expansion of the successful farm store activity to create a nationwide input distribution infrastructure and 2) the continuation of the agribusiness partnership program to foster value-addition and introduce technology and output marketing begun under previous programs.
The program targeted enterprise development and was supported by policy reform efforts and two separate U.S. Government-funded programs: the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID) Farmer-to-Farmer Program and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food for Progress Credit Fund. Technical assistance and enterprise grants were used to build a national network of 85 village-based enterprises that link farmers to inputs, credit, technical assistance and output marketing services.
PFCP’s major activities included:
- Creating 85 independently owned and operated farm stores and increasing access to high-quality inputs and technologies;
- Establishing a major input supply purchasing cooperative to pool purchasing power and bring down costs to both stores and customers, increasing profitability;
- Developing commercially viable agribusiness partnerships to increase access to new cash markets, introducing new technologies and expanding Moldova’s capacity to produce high-value fresh and processed products and compete in world markets;
- Establishing 71 Savings and Credit Associations to offer small production loans and to create jobs;
- Introducing a grain warehouse receipts program and developing a common legislative and regulatory framework to support development of common Black Sea Grain Market procedures; and
- Completing a Moldovan High-Value Agriculture Export Competitiveness Study.
Key accomplishments of PFCP:
- 85 independently owned and operated farm stores, were established, representing $3.2 million in USAID/CNFA grant assistance with $7.6 million in local partner investment. The Farm Store network under PFCP has become Moldova’s largest supplier of agricultural inputs and services, with 80 stores and five pure output marketing projects.
- The first Controlled Atmosphere (CA) Cold Storage in Moldova is buying high-quality apples for storage from over 4,850 private farmers at prices four times higher than those offered by processors, leading to a 34% increase in income. The first modern Individual Quick Freezing (IQF) project in Moldova introduced value-added technology and represented an important collaboration between USAID, the Dutch government, private sector implementers and the local Moldovan company. Rootstock and grafter nurseries are producing enough virus-free seedlings to plant 150 hectares of new vineyards per year. Virus-free vineyards will have a 50% longer productive life and will produce 50% more (higher quality) grapes, thereby helping rehabilitate Moldovan viticulture, an important cash crop for small farmers.
- The input supply cooperative Agrostoc, created by CNFA in collaboration with Farm Stores and Soros/EWMI, has become one of the most successful cooperatives in Moldova.
- The Moldovan High Value Agriculture Export Competitiveness Study, published in the spring of 2004, concluded that rebuilding Moldova’s processing and exports of high-value agriculture (HVA) to 1985 levels has the potential of generating $1 billion of annual export earnings. This would create 100,000 rural jobs and $50 million of annual tax revenues.
- 1,618 jobs were created at 10 newly developed Agribusiness Partnerships and 75 Farm Stores.
- The volume of output marketed by farmers receiving assistance from Farm Stores, farm service centers and processing enterprises assisted by USAID/CNFA through the PFCP and AP-2 programs more than doubled from $5.6 million in 2002 to $11.4 million in 2003. Furthermore, farmer incomes increased 20-30% in areas with access to high-quality inputs through farm stores and farm service centers.
