16th May 2011

MOLD –Agri Full Report for 2011 visit

Thursday 28th April
John Law and Mike Day travelled form Heathrow 08.50 flight on Austrian Airlines via Vienna to Chisnau arriving 15.50. Met by Igor and Lucia. Igor had been vague about details and had an important meeting so Lucia took us to exchange money and for coffee until Igor was free. Stayed the night with Igor and Lucia.

Friday 29th April
a) Met Daniel Apostu in Andy’s Pizzeria to discuss Training Day and update on popular varieties. He mentioned Sweet Peppers: Lotta (Enza) and Nakomonter, Tomatoes: Jadelo – normal (Vilmorin), Tolstoi normal to large (Bejo), Charanda plum (Vilmorin), President large (Seminis). Radish Tinto (Vilmorin). Most are available through agents Vadalex who cover S&G, Enza and Vilmorin.
Daniels email address: dan777ap@yahoo.com
b) We purchased seeds as follows:
Tomato-Marfa 1000 seeds 1250 lei
Tomato-President 200 seeds 505 lei
Water Melon-Crimson Sweet 1000 seeds 525 lei
Cucumber- Masha 1000 seeds 650 lei
Pepper-Lotta 1000 seeds 780 lei
Radish- Tinto 1000 seeds 330 lei
Total spend 4040 lei (239 euros)
c) We traveled to Burlacu (including Lucia) staying at Andrei’s in the newly converted Guest rooms. Welcome was cooler than usual.

Saturday 30th April
a) Sowed climbing French beans, Dwarf French beans, Fagiola beans, Broad beans, Sweet corn, Beetroot, Carrots and Radish at Andrei’s
b) Traveled to Hiratop to meet Oleg, Angelina, plus children Ben and Madeleine.
We inspected his 3 large tunnels all growing tomatoes cvs. Abellus and Lilos (Rijk Zwaan). Outdoors he has a large area of fleece covered radish. Tinto from last year’s seed performed well as did the Chantenay carrots which were picked out in the market.
Oleg was very pleased with the water pump which John purchased in the UK.
We outlined the plans for possibly moving the main agricultural project to Hiratop and he was very enthusiastic. He will build a large polythene tunnel himself and use it to test new varieties and growing techniques using local unemployed youths to help if necessary.
We left samples from ProVeg, the “winners” selection and some of the Suttons varieties plus some Caliente mustard and crimson clover. He was given 20,000 lei (1183 euros) as the budget for 2011
c) Back at Burlacu we inspected the 2010 field with Mikael and were surprised to find acceptable plots of red clover and Lucerne. In addition several of the 48 grass hardiness plots had come through the winter and were recorded (see Appendix 1). Mikael was asked to keep cutting the legumes and grasses and arrange for the site to be ploughed in the autumn and drilled with maize next spring.
The grasses were scored on a 0 to 5 scale where 5 = good and 0 = nothing left. Of the 46 plots 1 was missing damaged by machinery, 1 scored 5 (Perennial Ryegrass Polim). 2 scored 4 PRGs Dunloy and Herbal), 6 scored 3, 9 scored 2, 13 scored 1 and 14 scored 0 (including all the Cocksfoot varieties).
2000 lei were left to cover Mikael’s wages in cutting the field and Andrei’s Lucerne.

Sunday 1st May
We walked to Burlacu church for a 10am service. John and Andrei both spoke, several people sang items and I served at communion. There were about 55 present. There was a picnic in the afternoon 4pm to 7.15pm I spoke when it was getting dark and chilly.

Monday 2nd May
We visited several growers with Andrei as translator as Igor was in the south helping his in laws.
a) Angelo and Vacia plus Gena and Marius. This is a new contact for us; they have a homemade tunnel growing Radish – Sora, potatoes, onions, carrots and cabbage. Their production is all for their own use. We gave them a selection of seeds.
b) Agneta and Anatole. Their ex NIAB tunnel was growing potatoes as were their other 2 tunnels and an area of outdoor fleece. The variety was Minerva (Dutch) and we discussed having all their eggs in one basket. The tunnels are expected to crop 3 weeks before the fleece. They also have a small area of cucumber- Masha and Tomato –Tolstoi and President.
They expect to harvest the following yields of potatoes (16.9 lei = 1 euro)
500 kg from the tunnels @ 22 lei/kg
800 kg from fleece @ 16 lei/kg
1000 kg from their field @ 5 lei/kg
Potato seed costs: certified Dutch Minerva is 17 lei/kg; Polish is 7 lei/kg.
We gave them the “Winners” and a selection of the Suttons seeds.
c) Mikael and Roxanna Their ex NIAB tunnel had just been recovered with the original polythene as they remove it for protection over winter. The polythene was holding up well. Last year they had a good crop of peppers and tomatoes. They already have crops of onions, shallots and radish outdoors. We left the “Winners” and a selection of Suttons seeds.
d) Sveta and Sergei . All tunnels full of early potatoes mainly Minerva with some Debora for later. They plan to follow on with mainly Tomatoes – Tolstoi and Big Boy and some peppers. They have problems getting enough water and suffered poor germination with some carrots last year. The polythene on the ex NIAB tunnels is holding well. They were harvesting radish from under fleece, Tinto had performed well. They have used a mixture of Dutch and Polish seed potatoes, 700kg Dutch @ 16 lei/kg and 1300 kg Polish @ 8 lei/kg. They have also tried Magda and Karola. We left 100 euros towards the cost of a water pump and a selection of seeds. We were given a meal of compote, honey and cake.
e) Dennis Ghedeon He is growing Tomato – Tolstoi, Cucumber – Masha and some Peppers all for home consumption. We gave him a selection of seeds
f) Misha Muntineau (the Mayor) He is very pleased with his ex NIAB tunnel and claims that it feeds 2 families. The polythene is lasting very well. 2010 cropping was Tomatoes – Rio Grande (plum) and Liana plus peppers. 2011 radish and potatoes followed by Tomatoes and peppers. He is keen to try Aubergines and Climbing French Beans. We discussed the Mold H2O, Mold Fuel and Meal Deal projects (see separate reports on each of these). He was very helpful and supportive and is standing for his second period in office in June.
g) We inspected the drill, rotovator and mower supplied to the project. (see Mold Agri summary)

Tuesday 3rd May
a) We visited the Kindergarten at Specorsh which is over the hill from Burlacu but still officially part of the village. We saw equipment provided by a previous CEEM party and discussed provision of some play materials for which money has been donated.
b) We visited the site of the spring which is proposed to be piped into the village and followed the route of the pipeline.
c) To Chisolei where we stayed in 2007 with Anatole. He is one of three brothers who are all pastors, 2 run a sizeable farm and the third, Valerie has a small farm yard with 100 beehives and manages a Kindergarten. Anatole and his elder brother farm 200 hectares growing wheat, maize, sunflowers, Lucerne, oil seed rape and barley. They also have cattle and sheep. They were drilling sunflowers Natalia and Anabelle when we called. They expect yields of 9-10 tons/ha of maize and 4-5 tons/ha wheat using 100 kg fertilizer/ha. The maize was a Moldavian Porembane variety 458. We wondered whether they might be interested in our maize drill but they have a decent drill.
d) To Tatareshti to visit Lucia to invite her to the Training Day, however her daughter is getting married at the weekend so she is rather busy. Lucia raises and sells large numbers of tomato and pepper plants raised as bare root plants in tunnels. We saw Tomatoes: Mercury, Balade, Volgograd, Celebrity and Zageta, Pepper Victore. She also grows early potatoes Magda, Bernadette and Minerva in tunnels and under fleece. We gave her seed of Masha, Lotta, Tinto, Water Melon, Beans, Cabbage – Primo, Broad beans and Salad onions.
e) We planted the rest of Andrei’s vegetable garden at Burlacu including Spinach beet, Spinach, Fennel, Courgette, Squash, Water Melons, Pumpkin, Tomatoes- Marfa, Golden Sunrise and Florentino, Pepper-Lotta, Aubergine, Cucumber-Masha, Lettuce-Set, Cabbage-Primo altogether an area 30m x 20m.
f) We gave Suttons seed samples to Aleona and Elisha and the neighbour the other side of Andrei.

Wednesday 4th May
Raining so late start sorting seed and notes.
a) We collected tree seedlings mainly sycamore and hawthorn that had seeded on the ploughed headland of a field near the spring for the new pipeline. We planted a few on the stream floodplain and the rest in Andrei’s garden.
b) We visited the Street Children project in Burlacu chapel buildings. They were rather short of equipment and games but had jig saw puzzles, dominoes and draughts. After games they were fed by Ana and Roxanne then they moved to the chapel for a Bible story (over)acted by John and myself.
c) We were invited to the mayor’s office to meet George Chiziac the Deputy Chief of Forestry for south Moldova. He has a private tree nursery from which he supplies trees to the state owned Forestry Commission. He invited us to visit his nursery in Cahul.
d) In the evening we took Andrei and Eugenia for a pizza in Cahul. We were joined by a rather loud “Englishman Abroad” who was teaching English and happened to know Andrei. He rather dominated proceedings which was a pity.

Thursday 5th May
a) We traveled to Cahul to visit the tree nursery where young tree were being propagated from cuttings and seed. We also purchase more games and puzzles for the Street Children.
b) We walked to an area where 20 ha of new trees had been planted in Burlacu. These were mainly thorny Acacias as these are less likely to be eaten by sheep.
c) The Training Day was held in Burlacu. The event was billed to start at 5.30pm and as usual few turned up until 6 pm. I spoke on “Soil Fertility”; Daniel Apostu spoke for 2 hours on Onions, Tomatoes, Peppers, Cucumbers and fruit. We asked for suggestions for anther time and Strawberries and potatoes were requested to be included. About 30 attended and the rest of the Suttons seed distributed.

Friday 6th May
a) Andrei drove us to Gotesti where we met Illie and Igor. Illie was keen to show us his brother’s tunnels in Colebasi south of Cahul so we retraced our steps and met 3 brothers all with excellent tunnels. The eldest Nikoli had 8 26’ wide tunnels and 10 children! He was clearing radish and planting tomatoes: Mariska, Hilaro, Big Beef and Arbellus. He was planting in wide 1m rows on ridges (due to high water table in the marshes) covered with polythene and seep hose. He uses sheep manure and demonstrated a home made rotovator. A second brother was growing cabbage – Jetma which was showing some elongation due to bolting. The third brother was harvesting radish – Sora (Nunhems) from tunnels and fleece and was concerned that that it was counterfeit seed from Ukraine using Nunhems packs. He took us to see the church at Valeni where he is pastor. This church is made of reeds for lightness as it is built on the marshes with poor foundations. We were also taken to see the large church in Colebasi which was built by members in 4 years after independence and they now have 600 members.
b) Pasha, Illie’s wife was expecting us for lunch in Leova at 1pm and we eventually arrived at 4pm. The population of Leova has shrunk from 17,000 in 1984 to 7,000 now due to people leaving to find work elsewhere. There some huge half constructed buildings abandoned after the Soviet withdrawal in 1990. We inspected Illies tunnel (tomatoes), pond (enlarged and stocked with carp) and garden. He also demonstrated his home made sprayer (ex fire extinguisher), heating system, one way plough, cultivator (ex motor bike and chain saw), wheel barrow and irrigation system – he is working on a rotovator! His tunnel suffered hail damage last year.
c) To Slemia to take service. As the congregation of 20 was 90% youth we adjusted our plans and repeated the Prodigal Son dramatic version.
d) Visited Eugene the other pastor in Leova now working for Moldavian Gas but has not been paid for 2 months due to cash flow problems. He and wife Aleona are now expecting their 7th child in July. He has been building concrete block sheep pens. We inspected his tunnel which was growing tomatoes.
e) We slept at Peter and Marie’s who are neighbours of Illie’s with no bathroom and a considerable walk to a long drop toilet at the bottom of the garden.

Saturday 7th May
To Dancu to meet Chris and Helen Ducker plus Hannah, Daniel and Adelina, missionaries from England (ex Elmfield, Harrow).
a) Dancu looked close on the map, but the shortest route was impassable so we had to travel via Hincesti and took over 1.5 hours and 100 km.
b) They have been in Moldova since 2007 initially for 5 years working beside Pastor Dumitru Cravcencu partnering Breadline and Link Romania
c) Their remit is youth work, developing projects and vocational training in Dancu and a string of villages in the River Prut valley.
d) Dancu Tabita is an agricultural scheme that the church manages having built a large barn for storing crops. They manage 200 ha for people who cannot cope or are abroad. They own 2 tractors and a combine harvester and have recently brought 20 dairy cows, extended their dairy and are starting cheese making.
e) Youth work has grown from 5 to 30 at Dancu. They run a series of holiday clubs and camps in the summer and have contacted 650 children, using UK volunteers and local help.
f) There is a regular program feeding the elderly and have an exciting project where young people supervised by adults visit the elderly, talk to them, clean and paint their houses.
g) They have recently purchased new land and property for 8K euros (down from 20K). This includes 2 houses which are being converted into a Youth and community center, Internet café and sports area. Other parts are planned to be available for small business units, outdoor sports and camping area.
h) A fund raising cycle ride through Romania and Moldova is planned for 2012.
i) Overall they are doing a great job with some inspiring projects.
j) We drove back via Gura Galbena to visit Nicolae Dron a pastor and farmer who had been imprisoned for 3 years in communist times because of his beliefs. On his release he went into hiding on a bee farm in the forest while he translated the NT into Moldavian. We were going to see whether he was interested in our spare drill but he was not home but we met 2 of his sons who were running a violin making and repair business.
k) In the evening Illie’s son Samuel, Eugene’s son Alex and another Alex took us for a tour round Leova in the rain. After they put on a musical jam session. Samuel can play 14 instruments and Alex is brilliant on the piano accordion.
l) It was John’s birthday so he opened his cards and they sang the Moldavian version of “Happy Birthday”.

Sunday 8th May
a) 10 am service at Leova for 2 hours including Communion, about 55 attending. John supervised a couple of skits and I preached. Lunch at Eugene’s.
b) 2 pm service at Yargara for 2 hours including Communion, 10 attending. John and I both spoke. This is a recent church plant which is struggling at present.
c) 5 pm service at Philipini only 1 hour, 20 attending John spoke.
d) Tea and farewells at Illies then left to drive to Chisinau. Staying at Igor and Lucia’s.

Monday 9th May
a) Started writing reports in am
b) Departed Chisinau airport 15.50 (actually 30 mins late) via Vienna for 20 minute change which luggage failed to manage eventually arriving home on Thursday