MOLDOVA (3 June)
Latest government reports indicate large winter cereal losses to frost, while an unusually long winter prohibited spring planting and replanting of wheat, barley and maize. In addition, during the past two critical months there have been near drought conditions, which affected winter cereal crops and significantly delayed spring sowing. The government estimates that almost all of the winter barley and three-quarters of winter wheat have been lost to frost and drought in the past couple of months. Aggregate cereal harvest is, therefore, estimated at less than 50 percent of last year’s harvest of 2.3 million tonnes. Maize harvest is tentatively forecast at 900 000 tonnes, but this will highly depend on summer precipitation and input availability. Winter frost has also damaged significant areas of fruit trees, a major source of foreign exchange earnings and source of income for a large number of households. This will significantly compromise household access to food and the capacity to import food. Assistance will be needed to ward off the repercussions of such losses on a large proportion of the population.