March ended with a catastrophically low water level in the Dniester reservoir for this period of the year – only 115.28 meters. This was reported by Ilya Trombitsky, director of the Eco-TIRAS organization, on his Facebook page.
The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has paralyzed maritime transport, causing ad hoc fertilizer shortages and a spike in energy prices. However, for the potato and ‘chip’ industry worldwide, this means sharply reduced margins and operational uncertainty for the whole of the coming season. The crisis will definitely affect the Moldovan potato industry.
The government has tightened the requirements for the entry into Moldova of vehicles for the transportation of animals used for food products and some goods intended for human use. The cabinet decision specifies under what conditions these goods can be allowed to enter the country, what documents must accompany them and what conditions must be met for the products to reach the market.
On the Dniester, work is underway to install water intake equipment for the Crocmaz-Căplani-Tudora centralized irrigation system. This system will provide irrigation for about 2.5 thousand hectares of agricultural land near the mentioned settlements.
Moldova’s information space was “undermined” by a repost of a publication from a Ukrainian website stating that “Ukraine has mined the border with the Transnistrian region”. It would be strange if, in the fifth year of the war, Ukraine left open the border with the region where the Russian armed contingent is stationed. And it does not matter that it consists mainly of local residents who want to have paid jobs at home and are hardly eager to fight.
The Armed Forces Operational Command has denied that Poland is providing its airspace for “offensive actions against Russia”. This is a response to emerging reports claiming that Poland allegedly allowed Ukraine to attack Russian ports through its territory. Earlier, the authorities of the Baltic states also denied such theses.
Iran is a significant producer of apples and apple concentrate regionally and even globally. So as hostilities in the Middle East escalated, some operators had a not-so-healthy hope that the lack of supply from Iran would convert into higher demand and prices for these commodities. But that has not happened.
The Forța Fermierilor Association announced the organization’s meeting with the Parliamentary Commission for Agriculture, scheduled for tomorrow, 14:00. The first item on the working agenda is “preventing the increase of the VAT rate on agricultural products to 20%”
The increase in the price of agricultural inputs due to the war in the Middle East will certainly lead to a reduction in the sowing of many spring crops in the Northern Hemisphere. This process will also affect the Black Sea region, including Moldova. More than other spring crops, it is likely that the area sown with grain maize will shrink by at least 5-10%.
The Republic of Moldova is modernizing its national meteorological, hydrological and agrometeorological monitoring system to better protect the population and agriculture from extreme weather events. Thanks to the joint efforts of Japan, Sweden and Austria, coordinated by UNDP Moldova, 42 modern stations will provide accurate real-time data to residents and farmers in 17 districts of the country, as well as in ATU Gagauzia.
In Ukraine, users of the Internet application “Diya” have chosen the name “Siaivo” (“Siaivo”, “Shining”) for the national large AI language model (LLM).
The IFAD Joint Implementation Unit (UCIP) announced a limited credit line for targeted financing of productive activities of young farmers and women entrepreneurs in rural areas. The maximum amount “per hand” is up to 150 thousand euros.
The four largest producers of dairy products in Ukraine account for almost one-third of revenues in the dairy business in Ukraine.
The management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAIA) is planning to send a request to the specialized branch associations of Moldova in the nearest future, in which they will be asked to make a final decision on the expediency of creating a National Office of Fruit Growing.
Moldovan farmers started sowing sugar beet this week. The sowing campaign started later than usual. Taking into account the weather forecast, it is likely that sowing will be carried out in a short period of time. Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAIA) hope that the area of sugar beet plantations for the harvest-2026 in the country will remain at last year’s level – about 11-12 thousand hectares. The pledge of hope is the direct subsidies “per hectare” provided by the new law on subsidies.
The new trade deal between the EU and Australia has sparked a negative reaction from farmers and MEPs who say it will open the door to additional imports of sensitive products on top of those already agreed under the Mercosur agreement
The share of the Gulf countries in the global grain trade is small – only about 4-6% from season to season. According to Argus Analytics experts, in this regard, there is no reason to expect that the conflict in the region will have a direct impact on global grain supply and prices.
The state of table grape plantations after overwintering is assessed by experts of the Moldovan winegrowing industry as “satisfactory, but not brilliant”.
We are talking about the so-called “foodbanking” – a system that allows agri-food business entities to accumulate, sort, form into food packages and give them to Ukrainians in need.
Almost 1.5 thousand Moldovan farmers received agro-technological and financial assistance under the project “Emergency support for response to extreme drought conditions through sorghum promotion and animal feed distribution”. The project was implemented in the Republic of Moldova by the United Nations Organization for Agriculture (FAO) in partnership with the Government of Japan.
