Moldova Gets $15 Mln IFAD Loan for Farm Development
18 May 2004
Source: SeeNews

CHISINAU (Moldova), May 18 (SeeNews) - Moldova will get a $15 million interst-free loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to revitalise its rural regions and support small farms, the Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday.

''This credit will be provided for financing small businesses in the country's rural regions,'' the ministry's spokesman Veniamin Balan told SeeNews.

''The largest part of the loan will be allocated to increasing the vineyard acreage and fruit trees plantations and to technical support for local farmers,'' Balan said.

The credit will be distributed according to the business plan established and approved by the country's agriculture ministry, he added.

The 40-year credit will have a grace period of 10 years and will carry a 0.75 percent annual service charge.

The farm ministry said it expected the project to start in August after getting a go-ahead from the parliament.
The IFAD, a specialised United Nations agency established in 1977 to combat hunger and rural poverty in developing countries, have financed two projects in Moldova's agricultural sector worth a total of $37.7 million.

According to data of Moldova's association of agricultural producers, arable land covers about 75 percent of the ex-Soviet republic's territory of 34,000 square kilometres. It has 109,800 hectares under vineyards with some 104,000 of them yielding an average of 4,500 kilogrames of grapes per hectare.

Agriculture accounts for 19 percent of the country's gross domestic product and farm produce accounts for 59 percent of exports. About 84 percent of Moldova's population works in the agricultural sector.