The $25 million loan agreement between the government of the Republic of Moldova and the World Bank is expected to be signed on May 10.
Earlier, MAIA Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vladimir Bolya stated that the WB loan funds would be used to rehabilitate three centralized irrigation systems capable of supplying water from the Dniester and Prut rivers to approximately 7 000 ha of agricultural land. It is assumed that these will mainly be plantations of vegetable crops and grapes, located for the most part in the central and southern regions of the country, EastFruit specialists specify. The development of irrigated agriculture, along with animal husbandry and the processing industry, are declared as top priorities for MAIA.
Currently, the State Agency Apele Moldovei has 30 more or less functional centralized irrigation systems. The bulk of them was transferred to the operational management of 35 non-governmental organizations – Water Users Associations for Irrigation AUAI. In 2023, only 18 centralized irrigation systems supplied water to farmland.
10 irrigation systems in the basins of the Dniester and Prut rivers restored in the middle of the last decade under the Compact program funded by the US Millennium Challenge Corporation worked the most intensively. These systems are capable of supplying water to 10 000 ha. Last year, with their help, AUAI member farmers irrigated about 7 000 ha of plantations.
In total, according to expert estimates, about 30 000-60 000 ha are annually irrigated in Moldova from various water sources (rivers, lakes, artesian wells).
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