Over 70 farmers, members of Water Users Associations (WUAs), created both during the Compact and post-Compact period, met on February 25th, 2021 at the VIIth edition of the annual WUA conference, organized with the support of Sustainable Development Account Moldova (SDA Moldova) and USAID Project High-Value Agriculture Activity (HVAA/USAID). The event took place in a hybrid model.
Farmers, together with representatives of public authorities and development partners present at the event, discussed the development challenges and opportunities of taking over the management of a centralized irrigation system (CIS), the cooperation between agricultural producers for the efficient operation of the irrigation infrastructure and ensuring the sustainability of the WUAs’ activity, the transition to high value-added agriculture in CIS areas, etc. At the same time, the main challenges generated by climate change and possible solutions to foster irrigation efficiency and the rational use of water resources were also topics discussed during the event.
According to SDA Moldova, the climatic conditions, but also the taking over the management of the non-rehabilitated CISs in 2019-2020, allowed to double the irrigated areas through WUAs in the 2020 irrigation season, and ensuring about 6.5 thousand hectares, as well to triple the volumes of water pumped for irrigation by reaching 9.5 million cubic meters. During this period, WUAs received consistent support in developing and strengthening the capacity to manage the irrigation infrastructure sustainably, while the farmers' initiative groups were supported in their intentions to take over the CIS management. At the same time, through the support of the HVAA Project, WUAs’ members adopted modern production technologies opting for high value-added crops, increasing the competitiveness of agricultural products on the market and confirming the quality and safety for the consumption of fruits and grapes by implementing GLOBALG.A.P standards.
The Minister of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment, Ion Perju, present at the Conference, mentioned that: “the year 2020 has demonstrated how important and necessary it has become to rehabilitate irrigation systems and ensure their sustainability in our country. Irrigation systems must be preserved, strengthened and developed to create the base for the future development of efficient and competitive agriculture, both on the internal and external markets. Last year, the size of the irrigated land area and the total volume of water pumped for irrigation has been doubled compared to 2019. The use of CIS, both rehabilitated during the Compact Program and non- rehabilitated, but transferred under the WUA’s management, has been increased significantly by reaching the total number of 31. Joining the efforts through association, remain to be the best way for the irrigation sector development”. At the same time, Minister Ion Perju stated that a policy document is currently in work for the country’s irrigation sector development - National Strategy for the development of the irrigation sector 2030, currently being formulated the objectives and priority directions of the document.
Valentina Badrajan, Executive director of SDA Moldova noted that the institution aims to further support the development of the associative irrigation sector and ensure the sustainability of the Compact investments. "In this regard, we will deploy the necessary diligence, similar to previous years, to support the transfer of CIS management and contribute to the initiatives of modernizing the non-rehabilitated irrigation infrastructure, especially the one managed by post-Compact WUAs. Intervention per association will be limited and the beneficiaries' contribution will remain mandatory. We will also continue to provide advisory and technical support to associations through various tools and information technologies in order to streamline the work of the WUAs and the operation of irrigation infrastructure, as well as the expansion of irrigated land areas.
Rodica Miron, USAID Moldova Project Coordinator, mentioned that even after the rehabilitation of the 10 irrigation systems, the US Government continues to support farmers' efforts to develop agricultural businesses due to access to irrigation. Thus, through the HVAA project, USAID provided in the area of rehabilitated irrigation systems grants worth about 440 thousand USD, which catalyzed over 1.9 million USD additional investments from the private sector.
According to official data, currently, in the Republic of Moldova, there are 31 registered WUAs, out of which 24 have taken over the management of 27 CISs. Only 10 of the mentioned systems have benefited from full rehabilitation during 2010-2015, due to the grant offered by the US Government, within the Compact Program. The other 17 CISs are considered partially functional or non-functional, requiring substantial interventions to rehabilitate the infrastructure and consequently to increase the irrigable areas.
