From small beginnings, moving forward

24/06/2026

“You can’t keep cows just for profit. You have to love the animal. You have to love the land. You have to love the work itself.”

For 39-year-old Vitalie Vrabie, these words capture everyday life as a small-scale dairy farmer in the Republic of Moldova. A former migrant worker who left for the Russian Federation at 16, Vitalie spent years working abroad, returning home only briefly between jobs.

“I watched other men from the village do the same thing their whole lives,” he says. “They come back at old age and tell me they missed everything. Their children grew up without them, and the regret stays with them. I didn’t want that to be my story.”

In 2018, with his wife Elena at home and three children growing up, Vitalie bought his first cow. He had no land, no equipment and no savings. With loans, help from neighbours and money sent by his mother working abroad, he gradually built a small farm on six hectares.

Like many farmers in Sângerei, he has faced recurring droughts and rising feed costs. In Vitalie’s village, the dairy herd has dropped from around 300 cows to roughly 160, with many smallholders forced to sell their animals.

When asked to calculate his costs and profits, Vitalie smiles and shakes his head. “If I did, I’d be tempted to sell the cows. So I don’t look too closely at the numbers. I just keep going.”

Support at a critical moment

Funded by Switzerland, with additional support from Austria, the joint project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), “Emergency support for agricultural producers in the context of the socioeconomic and energy crisis,” came at a critical moment for the farmer. 

Vitalie received the necessary expertise and tools, including a modern milking machine and concentrated feed for his lactating cows. As part of the project, he participated in 10 theoretical and practical Farmer Field School sessions across the northern districts, gaining practical knowledge on animal care and production. 

The new equipment replaced old, inefficient tools and improved hygiene – essential for a family that processes and sells dairy products directly to villagers and to a market seller in nearby Bălți.  

“When you milk by hand, impurities get in,” he explains. “The machine is clean. If we produce quality, we have clients.”

The concentrated feed helped sustain the herd through the winter and raised milk fat content from 3.8 percent to as high as 4.5 percent. Crossing the 4 percent threshold allows for a higher selling price, roughly 20 percent more per litre, helping Vitalie continue his work despite pressure to sell his animals.

The Farmer Field School sessions changed Vitalie’s approach to animal health.

“Before, I treated my cows for parasites only once a year. After attending the session on animal health at the Farmer Field School, I understood that the product I was using didn't cover all of them. I learned I should treat them twice a year, in autumn and spring, and with the right medication. Now my animals are healthier and the milk is better,” says Vitalie.

Before dawn, after dark

Vitalie’s alarm goes off at five in the morning. By half past, he is in the barn – feeding and milking. He then heads to the Alexandreni town hall, where he works as the commune’s electrician, returning in the afternoon to tend to the animals again. Elena, meanwhile, reads water meters across the area.

In summer, the whole family helps with haymaking on the hillside pastures, working on slopes too steep for the tractor.

Vitalie has had offers to leave abroad, where the wages are higher, but he has turned them down. 

“The money is less here, but I’m home with my children,” he says. “I see them when they wake up and when they come back from school. That is a pride no salary can replace.”

Looking ahead 

Vitalie dreams of expanding, but finding reliable help in a depopulating village remains a challenge. 

“I want to grow,” he says, “but you can’t find people. They come, they work a winter, and in spring they’re gone.” 

At 39, Vitalie is building an operation that keeps his family fed and close. In his barn, the new machine hums each morning, while the feed sustained his herd through the winter. These are not large-scale interventions, but practical support that helps farmers avoid setbacks and gives him the confidence to continue.

Across the Republic of Moldova, more than 20 000 smallholder farmers and vulnerable households received inputs and equipment through the FAO–UNDP project between 2022 and 2025. Eighty modern milking machines, funded by Switzerland, were distributed to small dairy households, 50 of them to women, who carry much of the daily burden of animal care and milking.