BASIC DATA ON THE PILOT AREA

1. Introduction: origin and objectives to this assignment

To be inserted.

2. Project background

To be inserted.

3. Characteristic features of the pilot area 3.1. Description of physical-geographical peculiarities 3.2. Climate dynamics 3.3. Natural resources

To be provided by Dumitru Galupa.

Overview of social, economic and natural elements of the pilot area

In this section the general overview of the pilot area are presented. The materials follow the principal features of the communes and intended to identify common and specific aspects of the communities forming the pilot area.

General The Lapusnita river catchment is located at the territory of two administrative units (Judet) subdivided by three administrative sub-units (Sectors). The upper part of the river catchment is associated with the Nisporeni Sector (Ungheni Judet), the middle one – with the Hincesti Sector (Lapusna Judet) and the downstream – with the Leovo Sector (Lapusna Judet). There are 15 communes completely or partly lies within the boundaries of the basin. The eight communes associated with the middle and downstream part of the river basin has been selected as a pilot area. The selected communes named as Pascani, Lapusna, Sofia, Negrea, Carpineni, Minjir, Voinescu, and Toc hile Raducani.

Area The total surface area of the pilot areas is around 50,000 ha, where 18 villages are situated. The individual communes covers from 5,5 to 27,2% from the total area. The biggest commune is Carpineni, but the smallest ones are Negrea and Voinescu.

Table …… The territory and settlements of the communes (2001 year) in the pilot area.

Commune Villages associated Principal village Area, ha % from total area Pascani Pascani, Cornesti, Pereni, Pascani 4976 10,0 Secareni, Secarenii Noi Lapusna Lapusna, Anini, Rusca Lapusna 8921 17,8 Sofia Sofia, Balceana Sofia 4329 8,7 Negrea Negrea Negrea 2725 5,5 Carpineni Carpineni, Horjesti Carpineni 13614 27,2 Minjir Minjir, Semionovca Minjir 7602 15,2 Voinescu Voinescu Voinescu 2775 5,6 Tochile-Raducani Tochile-Raducani, Sarata-Razesi Tochile-Raducani 5048 10,1 Total per pilot 49990 100,0 area

Population The total population of the pilot area in the year 2001 is 43,238 Inhabitants. There are more than 14,000 family (households) lives in the selected villages with average family size of 2,9 members.

Table …. Population structure (2000 year) of the pilot area Commune Population, inhabitants % from total population Pascani 4993 11.5 Lapusna 6880 15.9 Sofia 3630 8.4 Negrea 2301 5.3 Carpineni 12678 29.3 Minjir 6048 13.9 Voinescu 3461 8.0 Tochile-Raducani 3247 7.5 Total per pilot area 43238 100 The population in rural localities varies from 60 (Semionovca) to 11,614 (Carpineni) peoples per village. At the commune’s level the smallest is village Negrea populated by 5% and the biggest is vilage Carpineni aggregated 29% of people from the total number of inhabitants in pilot area. There are 4 villages (Lapusna, Carpineni, Minjir, Voinescu) can be categorized as big settlements with population exceeding 3,000 inhabitants. Six settlements as Cornesti, Secareni, Secarenii Noi, Anini, Rusca, and Semionovca are relatively small locations where less than 1,000 peoples in village are living. The rest eight villages (Pascani, Pereni, Sofia, Balceana, Negrea, Horjesti, Tochile-Raducani and Sarata-Razesi) can be grouped within the middle settlement cluster. The biggest communes are Carpineni, Lapusna, Minjir and Pascani aggregating in sum around 70% of inhabitants settled within the pilot area.

The age and sex structures of population in the pilot area are presented in the tables below.

Table …. Age structure of population (200..) in the pilot area Commune Total Under Able- Over able- population able- bodied bodied bodied inhabitant Number % number % number % s Pascani 3447 1267 36.8 1906 55.3 274 7.9 Lapusna 6734 1893 28.1 3994 59.3 847 12.6 Sofia 3546 1014 28.6 2146 60.5 386 10.9 Negrea 2256 628 27.8 1407 62.4 221 9.8 Carpineni 11228 3252 30.0 6656 59.3 1320 11.8 Minjir 5640 1814 32.2 3181 56.4 645 11.4 Voinescu 3443 1267 36.8 1902 55.2 274 8.0 Tochile-Raducani n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Total per pilot 36 294 11135 30.7 21192 58.4 3967 10.9 area 1

The age structure is slightly vary from village per village and, in general, the population in the pilot area is presented by 30,7% of children and teenagers, 58,4% of adults in working age, and 10,9% of pensioners.

Table …. The sex structure of population (200..) in the pilot area Commune Total Men Women Proportion populati men/women on inhabitan number % Number % Under able- Able- Over able- ts bodied bodied bodied Pascani 3452 1754 49.5 1698 50.5 1.0 1.2 0.5 Lapusna 6762 3298 48.8 3464 51.2 0.9 1.1 0.6 Sofia 3559 1780 50.0 1779 50.0 1.2 1.0 0.5 Negrea 226 3 1139 50.3 1124 49.7 0.9 1.1 0.8 Carpineni 11520 5758 50.0 5762 50.0 1.1 1.1 0.6 Minjir 5670 2839 50.1 2831 49.9 1.2 1.1 0.6 Voinescu 3452 1754 50.8 1698 49.2 1.0 1.2 0.5 Tochile-Raducani n.d.a. n.d.a. - n.d.a. - - - - Total per pilot 36678 183 22 50 18356 50 area 2 The sex proportion is 1:1 taking into consideration the whole population within the pilot area. This rate is different for the various age-related clusters. The men are slightly prevailing in the youngest cluster and within the adult population. Within the pensioners women are dominated.

Economic structure The agro-industrial and mostly developed zone is commune Carpineni and Minjir. In these both communities the biggest producers of flour, fodder and grains and bakery products are located. Both communities produced certain amount of meat products and vegetable oil as well. In village Minjir the canning factory is operated and proceeds tomatoes, fruit juices and vegetable cans. The vine production is developed in all communes. The most of the vine factories are dealing with preparation of vine materials. The production of bottled vine is linked primarily to the Carpineni facility. Currently the biggest vine producers in the region are Carpineni, Lapusna, Pascani factories. At the same time a small-scale agro-processing activity is recognized in all localities. The small mills, grain crusher, vegetable oil press, bakery, etc. are available in the most of villages, especially with relatively big population size. There are also machinery re paration centers are based on the former tractor brigades or collective farm’s garages. The fertilization of lands is reduced significantly in the region. Sporadically agro- associations of farmers can purchase the mineral nitrogen fertilizers in order to fertilize limited areas. The phosphorous and potassium fertilizers are not used last 5- 7 years. Because of reduction of agricultural activity and financial limitation of farmers the application of pesticides and other crop protection chemicals is reduced virtually to a zero. Some time farmers applied chemicals for protection of fruit trees and grape

1 without Tochile-Raducani 2 without Tochile-Raducani bushes. By this reason the former capacities of pesticide and mineral fertilizers storage places is not in use. The buildings in majority of cases are open and damaged. The organic fertilizers are not in use as well, except very little application practices at the households yards. The principal activity of local farmers is crop agriculture. The cultivation of lands for growing of crops are general demonstration characteristic of the region. The major crops planting at the arable fields are maize (used as a grain and silage) and wheat. The other kinds of grain-crops are secondary important. The leguminous crops are presented by mainly by the pea or bean plantations. The technical crops are only locally important, and the sun-flowers are usually dominated within the harvesting structure. In some areas the sugar beet, tobacco or soy-beans are planting. Among the vegetables the cabbage, cucumber, tomatoes, beat and carrot are more frequently harvested by local farmers. The potato plantations are predominantly allocated at the households’ plots. The vineyard maintenance is also an evident element of local communities. The grape plantations were shared between farmers at different places in the commune.

Land use The existing general structure of the lands in the pilot area is demonstrated in the table …..

Table…. General land-use categories (in ha) in the pilot area Community Total Agricultu Forests Wetlands Water Roads Settleme Other area ral nts Pascani 4976 3306 995 26 42 164 253 190 Lapusna 8921 5448 2687 105 42 242 229 168 Sofia 4329 2263 1583 4 16 110 144 209 Negrea 2725 1617 863 0 12 66 63 104 Carpineni 13614 10112 2250 24 134 286 546 262 Minjir 7602 5106 1483 52 369 178 191 223 Voinescu 2775 2283 124 0 60 85 132 91 Tochile- 5048 3924 536 13 154 176 138 107 Raducani Total per 49990 34059 10521 224 829 1307 1696 1354 pilot area % 100 68.1 21.0 0.5 1.7 2.6 3.4 2.7

In pilot area the agricultural lands are dominated and presents by over 68% from the total surface area. Various types of forests, including land erosion protection belts are covers 21%. A surface water bodies and wetlands area occupies around 2% of territory. The area covered by roads and settlements are occupies in total 6%. Within the pilot area 2.7% of lands are categorized as “other type”, including ravines and landslides. According to the State Land Cadastre in pilot area 151 ha and 514 ha are subject of ravines and landslides erosions respectively.

Table …. General land-use categories (in%) in the pilot area Community agricultural forests wetlands water roads settlement Other lands Pascani 66,4 20,0 0,5 0,8 3,3 5,1 3,8 Lapusna 61,1 30,1 1,2 0,5 2,7 2,6 1,9 Sofia 52,3 36,6 0,1 0,4 2,5 3,3 4,8 Negrea 59,3 31,7 0,0 0,4 2,4 2,3 3,8 Carpineni 74,3 16,5 0,2 1,0 2,1 4,0 1,9 Minjir 67,2 19,5 0,7 4,9 2,3 2,5 2,9 Voinescu 82,3 4,5 0,0 2,2 3,1 4,8 3,3 Tochile-Raducani 77,7 10,6 0,3 3,1 3,5 2,7 2,1

The agricultural lands are dominated in all communities, but the highest rate of agricultural land-use is registered for the communities Voinescu, Tochile-Raducani and Carpineni. The agro -land is less available in the communities Sofia, Negrea and Lapusna. At the same time these communities are the more forested areas within the pilot zone. It should be mentioned that two communities (Voinescu and Tochile- Raducani) located at the dowstream stretch of the Lapusnita river is less forested in comparison with the situation in the selected pilot zone. The highest shares of wetlands are associated with the community Lapusna and Minjir. The Minjir community is also richest by the surface waters. In general terms the communes situated in the downstream area of the Lapusnita river have more surface water resources (in terms of area) in comparison with the middle and upperstream zones. The roads are relatively uniformly available in all communities. The portion of build- up areas is higher in communities Pascani, Voinescu and Carpineni. The communities Sofia, Negrea and Pascani have the higher percentage of non-use and non-fertile lands (landfills and ravines).

Agricultural land-use The table …. presets specific information concerning agricultural lands and their designation for various agro-use patte rns.

Table …. Agricultural lands categories (in ha) in the pilot area Community Total Arable Perrenial including Floodlan Pastures agriculture ds orchards vineyards other Pascani 3306 1550 1165 211 931 23 0 591 Lapusna 5448 2926 1280 242 972 66 4 1238 Sofia 2263 1254 656 229 426 1 0 353 Negrea 1617 761 486 118 368 0 0 370 Carpineni 10112 7141 1738 617 1099 22 3 1230 Minjir 5106 3370 896 442 449 5 30 810 Voinescu 2283 1650 306 69 237 0 0 327 Tochile-Raducani 3924 2711 434 391 37 6 0 779 Total per pilot 34059 21363 6961 2319 4519 123 37 5698 area % 100 62,7 20,4 6,8 13,3 0,4 0,1 16,7

The structure of agricultural lands are formed by arable lands which presents more than 62% of agricultural lands, the land covered by perennial plantations (more 20% within the agricultural lands) followed by about 7% of orchards and 13% of vineyards. The grasslands and pastures occupy around 17% in total.

Table …. Agricultural lands categories (in % from the total agriculture) in the pilot area Community Arable Perrenial orchards vineyards Pastures Pascani 46,9 35,2 6,4 28,2 17,9 Lapusna 53,7 23,5 4,4 17,8 22,7 Sofia 55,4 29,0 10,1 18,8 15,6 Negrea 47,1 30,1 7,3 22,8 22,9 Carpineni 70,6 17,2 6,1 10,9 12,2 Minjir 65,6 17,4 8,6 8,7 16,4 Voinescu 72,3 13,4 3,0 10,4 14,3 Tochile-Raducani 69,1 11,1 10,0 0,9 19,9 There are two communities characterizing by the high level of arable lands in the agro-land structure. They are Vionescu and Carpineni. At the same time communities Pascani and Negrea are less ens uring by the arable areas. The perennial plantations are mostly important in the northern region of the pilot area. The share of multi- annual plantations is reduced at the center part of the region and particularly at the Lapusnita downstream areas. The percentage of orchards is fluctuated between 3 to 10 % from the total agricultural lands. At the same time the vineyards are less developed at the direction from the north to the south. The highest level of pasture’s availability is recognized in communities Lapusna and Negrea. Communities as Carpineni, Voinescu and Sofia have the lowest share of grasslands available for the livestock in the pilot region

The tables …. presents the current designation of the lands for various land-use in the pilot area and can be used for estimation of ownership pattern respectively.

Table …. General information on land ownership (in ha) in the pilot area Community Total area Agricultur Residentia Industry, Forestr Water Reserve al l transport, managem managem land communic ent ent ation Pascani 4976 2523 557 19 949 10 918 Lapusna 8921 4395 577 64 2644 6 1235 Sofia 4329 1702 374 15 1540 0 698 Negrea 2725 1112 276 6 783 5 543 Carpineni 13614 9121 1064 36 2109 16 1268 Minjir 7602 4033 499 9 1347 318 1396 Voinescu 2775 1782 268 32 99 28 566 Tochile-Raducani 5048 3046 268 91 423 109 1111 Total per pilot 49990 27714 3883 272 9894 492 7735 area % 100 55.4 7.8 0.5 19.8 1.0 15.5

Table …. Agricultural land (in ha) ownership in the pilot area including Commune Total farmers gardens from reserve farmers agriculture individual collective

Pascani 2523 1006 257 48 1212 Lapusna 4395 1323 638 48 2386 Sofia 1702 1480 182 40 0 Negrea 1112 296 131 21 664 Carpineni 9121 750 829 70 7472 Minjir 4033 821 428 72 2712 Voinescu 1782 1542 232 8 0 Tochile-Raducani 3046 845 200 16 1985 Total per pilot 27714 8063 2897 323 16431 area % 100 29.1 10.5 1.2 59.3

In accordance with the State Land Cadastre the land ownership patterns is following: 55.4% of lands is designated for the agricultural purposes, which includes 29.1% of individual farmers’ lands, 10.5% of gardens and 59.3% of lands managed at the collective mode by farms with various size and types of organization (farmers associations, limited companies, joint-stock agro-enterprises, etc.). Currently 1.2 % of lands is presented by the plots reallocated from the reserve lands to the agriculture purposes of farmers, which have no share-lands at the moment of privatization. Residential (or municipal) lands covers about 8% of total territory, including industry and transport which owns around 0.5%. Forest and water state authorities manage territory of 19.8% and 1.0% respectively. The reserve lands of a local public administration is 15,5%.

Table …. The proportion between individual and common agricultural management practices in the pilot area. Commune Land- Number Proportion of share of agro-lands (ha) managed Individu Farmers Joint- Company individually collectively al farm associati stock with on company limited responsi bility (SRL)

Pascani 0.78 596 2 1 0 39.9 48,0 Lapusna 1.22 2336 0 1 1 30.1 54.3 Sofia 1.21 830 0 0 0 87 0 Negrea 1.2 190 0 0 1 26.6 59.7 Carpineni 1.83 437 0 0 3 8.2 81.9 Minjir 1.44 528 0 1 3 20.4 67.2 Voinescu 1.14 658 0 0 0 86.5 0 Tochile-Raducani 1.76 225 0 0 2 27.7 65.2 Total per pilot - 5800 2 3 10 - - area

In total 5800 individual farms are in the pilot area, 2 small farmers associations, 3 joint-stock companies and 10 companies with the limited responsibility. On the term of land’s area the highest rate of individual farming is registered for the community Sofia and Voinescu. In both communes all the lands are processing by the individual manner. At the same time the individual land management practices is less developed in the big communes as Carpineni and Minjir. The individual land-share is the highest in the communes Carpineni and Tochile-Raducani, but the smallest in the commune Pascani.

Irrigation and drainage In the frame of pilot area two important irrigation schemes has been realized in the soviet time. One scheme has been constructed in Lapusna commune, and one (and the biggest) in the communes Carpineni, Minjir and Voinescu. All the other communes have used a small scale irrigation equipment. Currently all big irrigation schemes are ruined. The small scale irrigation is reduced as well. As mentioned by the Primaria office in Sofia and Negrea the irrigation pattern at the territory of the communes is limited or not existing at all.

Livestock The livestock in the limits of pilot area is presented by cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, rabbits, hens and gooses. The information at the commune’s level on the individual and public livestock is aggregated in the tables …..

Table …. Individual livestock (2000) in the pilot area cattle Pigs sheep and horses Rabbits poultry goats Pascani 830 980 1810 240 403 8327 Lapusna 652 1200 1450 136 267 19500 Sofia 416 697 1376 168 385 22260 Negrea 347 426 534 85 58 24500 Carpineni 985 2808 3453 181 504 35104 Minjir 779 895 2960 97 720 16200 Voinescu 430 353 1166 58 35 6083 Tochile-Raducani Total per pilot area3 4439 7359 12749 965 2372 131974

Table …. Public livestock (2000) in the pilot area cattle pigs Sheep and horses Rabbits poultry goats Pascani 2 62 61 14 0 0 Lapusna 0 3 290 6 0 0 Sofia 0 0 0 0 0 0 Negrea 0 48 0 0 0 0 Carpineni 87 505 1257 54 0 0 Minjir 81 154 0 0 0 0 Voinescu 0 0 0 0 0 0 Tochile-Raducani Total per pilot area4 170 772 1608 74 0 0

Table …. Proportion of livestock managed at individual and public manner in the pilot area Livestock Individual sector Public sector Cattle 96.3 3.7 Pigs 90.5 9.5 Sheep and goats 88.8 11.2 Horses 92.9 7.1 Rabbits 100 0 Poultry 100 0

The dynamic of total livestock (individual + public) during last years presented in the figure …. shows fluctuation of total numbers of heads for selected sub-region within the pilot area 5.

3 without Tochile-Raducani 4 without Tochile-Raducani 5 data for communities Negra, Carpineni, Minjir and Voinescu has been used only. 15000

10000

5000

0 1987 1988 1991 1992 1995 1996 1999 2000

cattles pigs sheeps horses rabbits

The share between the private livestock and public one has been modified seriously during last decade. In the year 2000 the portion of public livestock is generally not exceeding 10% from the total livestock in the frame of pilot area. It means that livestock allocation has been switched from the animal farms located at the designated areas with some environmental protection elements (manure accumulation ponds) to the limits of residential private households within the boundaries of the villages.

Currently in villages from the pilot area the livestock distribution is generally estimated as following: one caw and pig per two families, one sheep per one family, one horse per ten families. The data on the village level and average figures for the pilot area is elucidated in the table …..

Table …. Individual livestock per family (2000) in the pilot area cattle Pigs sheep and horses Rabbits Poultry goats Pascani 0,5 0,6 1,1 0,1 0,2 5,0 Lapusna 0,3 0,5 0,6 0,1 0,1 8,1 Sofia 0,4 0,6 1,3 0,2 0,4 20,5 Negrea 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,1 0,1 33,7 Carpineni 0,2 0,6 0,7 0,0 0,1 7,5 Minjir 0,4 0,4 1,4 0,0 0,3 7,8 Voinescu 0,4 0,3 1,1 0,1 0,0 5,9 Tochile-Raducani Average per pilot area

Natural resources

Village infrastructure

Drinking water supply facilities has been built practically in all settlements. They were limited in terms of population connected as the piped water has supplied only to the part of village. The principal water consumers were administrative buildings, schools, chilgrengardens, hospitals, canteens, bath-houses. All water consumption industry and public livestock farms were ensuring by water supply systems also. In majority of cases deep boreholes, extracting water from different aquifers, were in use both for communal and industrial/livestock supplies. In several cases shallow groundwater from the battery of wells and spring sources were used as a sources for drinking water. Currently the majority of deep boreholes can not be used as the equipment is deteriorated, pumps are broken, pipelines are damaged. Local public authorities have no clear finance option to put the systems into operation. In general terms the water from the deep aquifer is not corresponding to the national drinking water quality standards. Villagers mainly relay to the shallow aquifer and construct by themselves huge number of shallow wells inside the residential area. The shallow wells are extremely polluted chemically and microbiologically and generate high health risk problems for the population. Only limited number of wells with more or less appropriated water quality can be found at the borders of village and at the hills, which are essl populated zones in the rural localities. Many settlements have a problems related to the scarcity of quantity of water from shallow wells during the hot season. Wastewater treatment facilities were built in the most of relatively big villages. They were designated to receive industrial wastewater (vine factory) and communal. The general patterns of sewerage development was to priority connect to sewer an administrative facility, school, hospital, childrengarden. Very limited number of peasants was connected. The capacity design of the facility was usually highly overestimated. It was not clear maintenance program implemented by the collective farms which were owners of the system in the majority of cases. The volume of wastewater was very low (or absent at all) as WWTP were built before the water supply systems were extended at full capacity. Currently all municipal facilities are completely ruined and can not be repaired. Within the pilot area only WWTP in Rusca (serving the prison) and in Sofia (vine factory pretreatment facility) is more or less in accepted technical conditions.

The paved roads are available within the pilot area. The principal road is directed from the north to the south and cross the entire Lapusnita river basin. This road is connected all principal villages. The Lapusna village is situated at the cross-section of important international roadway Chisinau-Leuseni, connected the capital of the country to the border with Romania. The distance from Lapusna to the Judet center town Hincesti is 17 km. As previously reported the total earth surface covered by the paved roads is exceeds 1300 ha. The network of second important gravel and enforced roads is available at the pilot region. They has been constructed as village streets (in total for the pilot area the village’s streets covers 732 ha) and in order to connect the center of a village to the locally important facilities (storage places, grounds for seeds processing, pesticides and fertilizers accumulation places, etc), animal farms or industry. The rest of roads are un-paved and located within the agricultural plots, forests, villages. The roads are poorly maintained (except international one) and hardly destroyed last years. Only asphalt roads can be used for car transportation during cold season and after the rainfalls. The constructions within the pilot area are presented by living houses and supporting buildings of villagers, administration and public (cultural house, hospital, polyclinic) buildings, commercial shops, industrial and agriculture infrastructure buildings (wine and agro-processing factories, machine reparation shops, storage places, etc.) and former collective or state animals farms. The area of village’s constructions is reported by the state Land Cadastre as 964 ha for entire pilot zone. The total territory occupies by industrial, transportation and communication enterprises is 272 ha. The electricity, tele- and radio communications as well as mail offices are available in all villages.

Area Paved Area Area Electricit TV, radio, covered roads covered occupies y post -mail by paved availabilit by village by roa ds, ha y infrastru industry, cture, ha transport , telecom municati on, ha Total streets construct ions Pascani 164 YES 253 121 132 19 YES YES Lapusna 242 YES 229 84 145 64 YES YES Sofia 110 YES 144 66 78 15 YES YES Negrea 66 YES 63 45 18 6 YES YES Carpineni 286 YES 546 223 323 36 YES YES Minjir 178 YES 191 80 111 9 YES YES Voinescu 85 NO 132 62 70 32 YES YES Tochile- 176 YES 138 51 87 91 YES YES Raducani Total per pilot 1307 1696 732 964 272 area

The area of courtyards has been estimated on the base of land-use data. The table …. aggregates available information concerning the households courtyards for villages located at the pilot area. The total courtyards area in the pilot zone is around 2000 ha and represents more 56% of village territory. The percentage of courtyards is varying from 48.5 to 77.2% from village to village. At the household level the territory of courtyards is 0,15 ha per one family as average for the pilot area. This parameter is variable at commune’s level in the limits from 0,11 to 0,29 ha/family.

Table …. Courtyards information (2000) Community Total Village streets Village % ha per family residential and cour tyards, ha area, ha constructions, ha Pascani 557 253 304 54.6 0,18 Lapusna 577 229 348 60.3 0,14 Sofia 374 144 230 61.5 0,21 Negrea 276 63 213 77.2 0,29 Carpineni 1064 546 518 48.7 0,11 Minjir 499 191 308 61.7 0,15 Voinescu 268 132 136 50.7 0,13 Tochile-Radu cani 268 138 130 48.5 0,12 Total per pilot area 3883 1696 2187 56,3 0,15

Market The most important local market is organized in village Carpineni. The market options in towns Hincesti and Chisinau are also utilized by the local farmers. 4. Social, economic and natural conditions at the commune’s level

In this section social, economic and natural conditions of the selected communities is prescribed. There are 8 communities have been selected to be included in a pilot region for the APCP. They are: Pascani, Lapusna, Sofia, Negrea, Carpineni, Minjir, Voinescu, and Tochile -Raducani. The material is presented in two ways. First part is show all available validated data and information at the commune level and follows the annexes to the TOR for preparatio n of the working paper #1 “Baseline survey”. The second part of the material is an overview of important social, economic and natural aspects of the whole pilot area. The description of the pollution sources is given in the separate section.

Commune Pascani

Position The commune Pascani is covered area of the north part of the pilot zone. The territory of commune is stretches in the south-north direction at the distance of 17-18 km. The neighborhood communities as Ciuciuleni at the west, Boghiceni and B ujor at the east, Iurceni and Christesti at the north, Lapusna (lies in the pilot area) at the south are bordering the Pascani commune area.

Land-use and land-ownership The total area of the commune is 4976 ha, consists from 3306 ha (66,4% from total surface) of agriculture lands, 995 ha (20%) of forested area, 68 ha (1,4%) of wetlands and surface water bodies. The roads and settlements covers 164 ha (3,3%) and 253 (5,1%) ha respectively. The other type of lands occupies 190 ha or 3,8% from the total area, including 28 ha of ravines and 133 ha of landslides.

According to the State Land Cadastre the land ownership at the level of Pascani commune is following: 2523 ha (or 50,7% from the total area) is owned by individual farmers and their associations, 19 ha (0,4%) is managed by the industry, transport and telecommunication authorities, 949 ha (19,1%) and 10 ha (0,2%) by forest and water authorities respectively. Household area is designated for 557 ha (11,2%), including households plots in the limit of residential area and small plots around the village (a several acres of lands provided for the small-scale agriculture of peasants). The Primaria, local public authority, have reserve lands which covers 918 ha (18,5%).

Population and demography The commune aggregates 5 villages with the center in the village Pascani. The total population of the commune in the year 2000 is around 5000 inhabitants, distributed between villages as: in Pascani – 1709 (34,2% from total population) peoples, in Pereni – 1450 (29%), in Secareni – 812 (16,3%), in Cornesti – 664 (13,3%) and in Secarenii Noi – 358 inhabitants or 7,2% from the total number of peoples lives in the commune.

There are more than 1650 families lives in five villages. In two big villages, Pascani and Pereni, there are 556 and 471 families respectively. The population in villages Secareni and Cornesti distributed between 290 and 241 families accordingly, but in the smallest village Secarenii Noi only 96 families can be found. The average size of a family varies from 2,8 peoples per family in Secareni and 3,7 ones in Secarenii Noi with average 3,1 for the whole commune.

The age related demographic structure for the whole commune is presented by the 1267 children and teenagers (under able -bodied cluster) or 36,8% from the total population, by 1906 able-bodied men and women (55,3%) and 274 pensioners (over able-bodied category) or 7,9% of population. The sex related demography parameters of the total commune are the following – 1754 of men (or 49,5%) and 1698 of women (or 50,5%). The basic demographic indicators in the year …… for the commune Pascani, which has been indicated in the statistic documentation, are: number of born – 37, number of decease – 37, infant mortality – 2 cases

Economic structure The number of agro -industrial enterprises is limited in the commune. According to the statistic report only meat-production facility is available in the Pascani village which is operated by “CAP Pascmlad”. Yearly in Pascani 2-4 tons of meat is produced completely from the local sources of meats. The product is sailed at the local market and partly distributed between the workers. The “CAP Pascmlad” is operates also a vine factory, located in the village. The production of this factory vary from year to year around 100 000 Dal. The production dynamic for the last three years is presented in the table below.

Product year produc Realized on a market ed Units Value In Lei In Lei Meat (CAP 1999 Tons 2 51 000 15 000 Pascmlad) 2000 Tons 4 64 000 28 000 2001 Tons 2 43 000 15 000 Vine (CAP 1999 DAL 99 100 Pascmlad) 2000 DAL 107 900 2001 DAL 121 900

The vine product is sailed on markets available. According to the statistic report for the year 2000 the volume of vine equivalently to the 4 136 000 Lei was realized in Moldova, except 128 000 Lei which has been exported in the Europe. In the 2001 year 4 522 000 Lei has been realized from the vine, including 4 174 000 Lei after sailing of production in the NIS countries, and 52 000 Lei outside of the former USSR territory.

The principal activity of the farmers is phyto-agriculture. They proceed the number of arable crops and perennial plantations. The total production of basic crops (in tons) and the productivity of arable lands (in metric centner per ha) are presented in the following table. Crop Area cultivated (ha) Yield (tone) Average productivity (centner/ha) Maize 494 988 20 Winter wheat 215 473 22 Pea-beans 165 231 14 Sunflower 288 317 11 Vegetables 152 1262 83

The yield (in tons)/productivity (centner per ha) of orchards and vineyards during last decade are presented in the table below. The information has been extracted from the reports of regional statistical office for the former collective farms in villages Pascani and Pereni, which territorially is equal to the structure of agriculture for the commune Pascani, currently aggregated both villages.

Village Type Year name of planta tion 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 Pascani Fruit I6 n.d.a. n.d.a. 34/--- n.d.a 19/23,4 n.d.a. 81/201,3 12/10,5 n.d.a. n.d.a. Pereni Fruit I 35/39 3/3,3 52/--- n.d.a 15/21,3 n.d.a. 20/66,3 n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Pascani Fruit II 15/74 15/73,5 4/--- 0,3/0,6 0,2/0,4 6/11,4 34/56,7 14/14,2 n.d.a. 37/24,3 Pereni Fruit II n.d.a. 18/--- 10/--- 8/8,2 8/7,9 11/5 23/14,1 n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Pascani Grape 1199/41 1260/44 973/--- 904/38 1373/59 1055/45 735/31 1031/44 1154/45 1145/44 Pereni Grape 961/45 954/44 834/--- 399/19 403/19 411/20 161/15 n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a.

The yearly yields of Fruit I are vary from 19 to 81 tones in Pascani and from 3 to 20 tones in Pereni. For the Fruit II the figures are following: in Pascani the yield vary from 0,2 tones to the 37 tones and for Pereni – from 8 to 23 tones. The production of vineyards is also quite variable indices and fluctuates between 735 and 1373 tones in Pascani and between 161 and 961 tones in Pereni. It means that annually the commune, on the base of former soviet technology and management systems, can produces in average around 40-50 tones of s eeds -fruits, 20-25 tones of stone-fruits and 1300-1600 tones of grapes.

According to the statistical information for the year ….. in the private sector of the whole commune the yield of seed-fruits, stone-fruits and grapes are: 40 tones (collected from the 36 ha), 95 tones (from the 72 ha) and 1595 tones (from the 528 ha) respectively.

The total number of land’s shares in the commune is 731. Each land-share is evaluated as 0,78 ha, including 0,36 ha of arable lands, 0,05 ha of orchards and 0,37 ha of vin eyards. The number of private farms is 596. Currently there are 3 collectives of farmers are existing in the commune.

Agricultural land use pattern In the commune Pascani the arable crops and perennial plantations are the dominated land use. From the total 3306 ha of agricultural lands 1550 ha (or 46,9%) is designated for the cultivation as an arable land and 1165 ha (35,2%) designated for the multi-annual plantations, consists accordingly from 931 ha of vineyards, 211 of orchards and 23 ha of other kind of gardens. The pastures occupies 591 ha or (17,9% from the total agro-lands). The agriculture land availability in the limits of commune is 0,66 ha per person, including 0,31 ha of arable lands and 0,23 ha of perennial plantations and 0,12 ha of pasture. Actually (in the year 2000) the agro-land (arable and vineyards) is divided between individual farmers (1006 ha). Gardens is managed individual or collectively at the

6 According to the statistical information the Fruit I is aggregates the apple-trees, pear -trees and other species with a number of seeds, the Fruit II is aggregates the cherry-trees, peach-trees, apricot -trees with a single seed as a stone. territory of 257 ha. The Primaria allocated 48 ha from the reserve lands for the villagers, which have no land shares. In addition to the individual sector 2 associations of farmers owns 1179 ha, including “CAP Pascmlad” (629 ha), “CAP Pereni” (550 ha). Besides one joint-stock company “SA Secarenul” have 33 ha of lands.

Hydrological network The hydrological network in the limits of Pascani commune is presented by the Lapusnita main stream, and a few small tributaries The river Lapusnita itself is flows through the village Cornesti and Pascani. The more important tributary is crossing village Pereni, regulated by a small dam just downstream of the settlement and joint Lapusnita downstream of village Pascani. The total area of surface water in the borders of commune is 42 ha, from which 20 ha is small ponds and lakes.

Irrigation and drainage The irrigation of lands is mainly associated with the floodland near village Pascani. There are no permanent engineering facilities has been build, but local farmers have construct a few small ponds or temporally dams the river stream in order to irrigate about 60-80 ha of surrounding lands by mobile pumping equipment and distribution network. Currently, as reported by the Primaria, not more than 30 ha at the north from the village Pascani is irrigated.

Livestock The total number of livestock in the year 2000 was 830 heads of caws, 1042 of pigs, 1871 of sheep and goats, 254 of horses, 403 rabbits and more than 8000 poultry. Principally all livestock is managed on a private base and situated in the stalls at the territory of individual households. The numbe rs of field stall-camps are organized by the community for the summer maintenance of sheep livestock and they are allocated out of residential area at the non-productive lands, landslides, near forests, high slopes terraces, etc. The public property remains for a several caws, 62 pigs, 61 sheep and 14 horses. In the Soviet time a few collective livestock farm’s facilities were in operation for the public cattle and pig management. It was one cattle and one pig farm at the south-east out-skirts of village P ascani, located at the both banks of tributary to Lapusnita river. Also in village Cornesti one relatively small facility (2-3 blocks) was build in the middle sector of the village. The former public farms are privatized, abandoned or ruined (partly) now. As mentioned by village authority a former cattle farm in village Pascani is used for keeping of 50-60 public pigs now, and in village Cornesti – for 20 caws and 50 pigs by one farmer.

Natural resources

Machinery/Equipment The structure of machinery and agricultural equipment are presented in the table below Year Type of farming

l fertilisers Plugs Lorries Tractors Combines Tractor trailers Planting machines Irrigation machines of organic fertilisers Tools for application of minera Tools for application Spreading equipment Cultivators + harrows

1999 Big agro-enterprises 38 31 26 9 26 28 14 5 17 4 2 Small farmers associations 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 Individual farmers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2002 Big agro-enterprises 17 19 13 4 20 6 10 1 13 1 0 Small farmers associations n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Individual farmers n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a.

Infrastructure As it has been reported by a village authority in locality Pereni about 150 families were connected to the piped water supply system based on the water source from the deep boreholes. Currently, only 40 households have access to the limited water supply as the infrastructure is deteriorated. Previously, in village Cornesti around 100 families were connected to the pipeline, but actually only 40 families is used local spring water restrictively piped to the village. Waste water treatment plants (WWTP) were build in village Pascani for receiving of waste water from the school and polyclinic, in village Pereni – for the bath-house and in village Cornesti – for treatment of wastewater from the school, bath -house and childrengarden. There are no population connected to the sewerage system in all villages. Currently the wastewater facilities is not managed, abandoned and deteriorated, as it is no wastewater originated. The roads in the limits of Pascani commune covers 164 ha. The principal road covered by asphalt is oriented at the south -north direction and connected village Pascani and Cornesti. The second class road surfacing by the gravel is links Pascani and Pereni villages. There are number of un-paved and field roads are available. The area under construction is covered 253 ha, including village buildings and households (132 ha) and streets (121 ha). There are number of public facilities has been build in the villages. They are: one service combinate in Pascani, 2 bath-houses in Pascani and Pereni, 2 houses of culture in Pascani and Cornesti, 3 libraries in Pascani, Cornesti and Secareni. Actually they are not in extensive use or use for another purposes. The technical statuses of the remaining buildings are rather poor. The electricity, telephone and mail service is available in all villages.

Market There is only very small local markets are available in the villages. Villagers prefer to go for the market purposes to the neighbor district centers Nisporeni, Hincesti or in Chisinau.

Commune Lapusna

Position The commune Lapusna is located in the north part of the pilot zone. The territory of commune is aggregated around the village Lapusna. From the north the commune borders with the communes Boghiceni, Pascani (selected as a pilot area) and Ciuciuleni. To the east direction the commune Bobeico, Stolnicheni, Loganesti and municipal area of Hincesti town are situated. South-west border is forming with the commune Sofia, which is a part of study area as well.

Land-use and land-ownership The total area of the commune is 8921 ha, including 5448 ha of agriculture lands, representing 61,1% from the total commune territory, 2687 ha (or 30,1%) of forested zones, 147 ha (1,6%) of wetlands and surface water bodies. The roads occupies 242 ha, which equivalently to 2,7% of territory. Villages located at the territory of 229 ha or 2,6%. The other type of lands covers 168 ha or 1,9% from the total area and presented by 7 ha of ravines and 40 ha of landslides.

The land is distributed between several owners as: 4395 ha (or 50,7% from the total area) is owned by farmers. It is about 49,3% from the total area available for the commune. The industrial and transport enterprises is occupies 64 ha (or 0,4%). In addition 2644 ha and 6 ha is managed by forestry and water authorities respectively. These terr itories present 29,6% and 6,7% of area correspondingly. Residential area is designated at 577 ha (or 6,5%) but also included small peasants plots around the village. The local public authority is manager for 13,8% of public lands or 1235 ha.

Population and demography The commune aggregates 3 villages. The biggest village is Lapusna – the capital of the commune. The total population of the commune in the year 2000 is 6880 inhabitants, mainly presented by 6509 people in Lapusna (or 94,6% from total population). In villages Anini and Rusca only 211 and 160 rural inhabitants are lives. In village Rusca a women prison is located.

There are more than 2400 families lives in the commune, following by 2268 families in Lapusna, 87 in Anini and 54 ones in Rusca. The average size varies from 2,4 peoples per family in Anini and 3 ones in Rusca with 2,8 family members as average at the commune level.

The demographic structure for the commune consists from 28,1% of under able- bodied young peoples and children (1893 persons), from 59,3% of able-bodied population (3994 persons) and 12,6% of peoples within the over able-bodied category (or 847 pensioners). The sex ration is 48,8% of men (3298 persons) to the 51,2% of women (3464 ones). The basic demographic indicators in the year …… for the commune Lapusna was: number of born – 71 and the number of decease – 71.

Economic structure The small-scale agro-processing infrastructure in the commune is limited in the commune. Only one vegetable oil-press is reported which has not been in operation last three year. Relatively big enterprises are presented by the “IS-Rusca” (prison factory), “SRL Collector”, and “SA Vitis-Lapusna”. The production of enterprises is presented in the table below. Product Produced year Units 1999 2000 2001 Clothes (IS-Rusca) Lei 231 236 224 Flour (SRL Collector) Tons 127 61 48 Bread (SRL Collector) Tons 36 3 4 Vine products (SA Vitis Dal 116900 64400 0 Lapusna)

It is only reported that production from the IS-Rusca has been realized at the volume of 259 000 Lei from which about 50 000 Lei has been received in the NIS countries after the sailing of sewing products.

The principal activity of the farmers is agriculture. They proceed arable crops and perennial plantations. The total production of basic crops (in tons) and the productivity of arable lands (in metric centner per ha) are presented in the following table. Crop Area cultivated (ha) Yield (tone) Average productivity (centner/ha) Maize 801 3204 40 Winter wheat 130 260 20 Orz 120 240 20 Pea-beans 62 124 20 Haricot 12 24 20 Sunflower 555 944 17 Tobacco 30 20 15 Vegetables 80 400 50

The yield (in tons) and productivity (centner/ha) of orchards and vineyards during last decade are presented in the following table for the former Lapusna collective farms. Type Year of planta tion 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 Fruit I 436/24 103/38,2 218/--- n.d.a 200/19,8 n.d.a. 1370/--- 307/32 62/7,4 n.d.a. Fruit II 107/16,7 35/5,5 72/--- 20/3,9 124/12,4 n.d.a. 89/8,6 101/25,8 12/--- 0,4/--- Grape 2502/25 4299/44 1245/--- 761/10 2887/49 n.d.a. 1260/--- 167/35 1936/--- 1261/27

The Fruit I plantations provide yearly a yield varying from 62 to 1370 tones. For the Fruit II production the variation is following: from 0,4 tones to the 124 tones. The yield of vineyards fluctuates between 167 and 4299 tones. Averaging the multi-annual dynamic it is possible to conclude that potential of commune, on the base of former soviet technology and management systems, is – production of 350-400 tones of seeds -fruits, 50-70 tones of stone-fruits and 1600-2000 tones of grapes.

In the year ….. the private sector produced 1010 tones of grapes growing at the 364 ha. The area occupied by privately managed seed-fruits and stone-fruits plantations is 100 and 117 ha respectively, but there are no indications about the yields received from this lands.

The total number of land’s shares in the commune is 2229. Each land-share is evaluated as 1,22 ha, including 0,77 ha of arable lands, 0,1 ha of orchards and 0,35 ha of vineyards. The number of individual farms is 2336. There is one joint- stockholder community and one company with the limited responsibility are created in the commune.

Agricultural land use pattern The arable lands and perennial plantations are the dominated land use in the commune. From the total 5448 ha of agricultural lands 2926 ha (or 53.7%) is designated for the cultivation as an arable land. The second important agricultural land use is perennial plantations presented by 1280 ha or 23,5% and includes 972 ha of vineyards, 242 of orchards and 66 ha of other gardens. The pastures occupies 1242 ha or 22,8% from agro-lands. The agriculture land availability in the limits of commune is 0,79 ha per person, including 0,43 ha of arable lands, 0,18 ha of perennial plantations and 0,18 ha of pastures.

According to the State Land Cadastre in the year 2000 the agricultural areas of 1323 ha (arable and vineyards) is divided between individual farmers. Gardens are managed individually or collectively at the territory of 638 ha. The Primaria allocated 48 ha from the reserve lands for the villagers, which have no land shares. Besides three agricultural enterprises owns 2386 ha of agricultural lands. The biggest is “SA Vitis -Lapusna” (2323 ha). The “SRL-Collectorul” has only 3 ha of lands. The prison #29/7, located at the village Rusca, managed 58 ha of agricultural lands.

Hydrological network The Lapusnita main stream is crossing the territory of commune from the north to the south-west. Upstream and downstream from locality Lapusna the river has received water from two small tributaries, one of which starts flow from the areas of communes Bobeica and Stolniceni (both are out of the pilot zone). The 4 dams forming small water reservoirs regulated the flow of the tributary. One reservoir (and the biggest one) is located at the territory of Lapusnita commune. The next - downstream tributary is originated in forested area around village Rusca and its flow is not regulated by any hydro-engineering constructions. The important part of hydrological situation in the limits of the Lapusna commune is a big reservoirs at the Lapusnuta river. There are two weirs, located upstream from the village Lapusna regulates the water regime of the Lapusnita. The biggest water reservoir is situated at the distance of 1,5-2 km to the north from the Lapusna village and named “Lapusna”. The designing catchment area of the reservoir is 123 km2 and the distance to the Lapusnita mouth is 41 km. The reservoir has been projected by “Moldselihozproiect” for irrigation, fishfarming and recreation and has been constructed in the year 1966. According to the design the depth of the water body should be 6 m, water surface mirror – 72,3 ha, water volume accumulated – 2,12 mln m3 if the reservoir is in full capacity filled by water. It was expected that water body will be used for irrigation of 221 ha of lands, produced 1000 kg/ha of fresh fish and can be used by 2000 visitors and tourists yearly.

According to the cadastrial information the total area of surface water in the borders of commune is 42 ha, from which 18 ha are small ponds. The surface of Lapusnita river and associated water reservoirs is 24 ha.

Irrigation and drainage Previously the irrigation has been organized at the area of 280 ha located at the left bank of the Lapusna water reservoir. The irrigation system has been completed by 2 pumping stations, accumulation reservoirs and field distribution network. By the mobile techniques the area of 200 ha was irrigated as well in different places around river channel of the Lapusnita. Currently the stationary irrigation network is not in use and destroyed. Only small areas are occasionally irrigated by the mobile pumping facilities. The drainage system is organized for drying of Lapusnita floodplain and presented by the several open channels.

Livestock The 652 heads of caws, 1200 of pigs, 1740 of sheep, 142 of horses, 267 rabbits and more than 19 500 poultry are represent the total figures livestock in the year 2000. Practically all livestock is private as only about 300 sheep and several horses are managed by public sector. Several field stall -camps are organized by the community for the summer maintenance of sheep livestock and they are allocated out of residential area at the non-productive lands, landslides, near forests, high slopes terraces, etc. The rest livestock is stalled at the individual plots of peasants near the living buildings. In the Soviet time there are two cattle farms, one located at the north from Lapusna locality, and one at the south area of the settlement was in operation. One pig’s farm was situated at the Lapusnita bank just downstream from the water reservoir “Lapusna”. Currently the cattle and pig farms are not managed, ruined or used for another purposes.

Natural resources

Machinery/Equipment The structure of machinery and agricultural equipment are presented in the table below.

Year Type of farming

g machines Plugs Lorries Tractors Combines Tractor trailers Plantin Irrigation machines of organic fertilisers Tools for application of mineral fertilisers Tools for application Spreading equipment Cultivators + harrows

1999 Big agro-enterprises n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Small fa rmers associations 42 46 37 2 24 0 6 0 8 0 0 Individual farmers 8 14 5 0 8 0 5 0 0 0 0 2002 Big agro-enterprises n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Small farmers associations 30 14 15 5 28 0 7 0 7 0 0 Indivi dual farmers 49 18 17 2 12 0 5 0 3 0 0

Infrastructure The water supply is available in village Lapusna for about 100% of population. The water is pumped from the deep aquifers but not correspond to the drinking water quality standards. The prison in Rusca also has piped water supply. Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was build in Lapusna village at the south region of the settlement in order to treat wastewater originated after school, childrengarden, canteen and part of population. Actually the facility is destroyed. In the limits of commune one WWTP was constructed for the prison in Rusca. Environmental authorities recognized that this installation is in operation status.

The roads in the limits of Lapusna commune covers 242 ha. The principal road is Hincesti-Leuseni, which is nationally and internationally important as it connect the western border of the country with the capital – city Chisinau. The second important road is crossing the area of commune from the south to the north and links several villages in the region. There are number of gravel or un-paved and field roads are available. The area under construction is covered 229 ha, including village buildings and households (145 ha) and streets (84 ha). There are number of public facilities has been construct in Lapusna. They are: service combinate, bath-house, hospital (50 beds capacity) and polyclinic, house of culture and 3 libraries. One library and house of culture is located in village Anini as well. The electricity, telephone and mail service is available.

Market There is only very small local market in Lapusna village. The important market places are village Carpineni and towns Hincesti and Chisinau.

Commune Sofia

Position The commune Sofia is located in the middle zone of the pilot area. The territory of commune is pull out at the west-east direction at the distance of 14-15 km. At the north the Sofia commune have a border with the Lapusna (part of the pilot area) and Boghiceni ones. To the west and south directions the communes Negrea (lies within the pilot area) and Boghiceni are situated. From the east the Hincesti municipality area is bordering the commune territory.

Land-use and land-ownership From the total zone of the Sofia commune (4329 ha) the 2263 ha (or 52,3%) is considered as agriculture lands. Forests cover 1583 ha and represent 36,6% of the territory. The water bodies and associated wetlands occupy 20 ha, which is 0,5% of the land surface of the commune. The roads and settlements spread at the 110 ha (2,5%) and 144 (3,3 %) ha respectively. The lands of other types occupies 209 ha (4,8%) and predominantly presented by landslides (114 ha).

Currently 39,3% of the land (1702 ha) is owned by the farmers. The second important landowner in the commune is forest authority, which operate the territory of 1540 ha (35,6%). Residential and household area is designated at 374 ha of land surface, which correspond to the 8,6% of the area. Public authority have a reserve lands at the territory of 698 ha (16,1%), but industry – only at 15 ha (0,4%).

Population and demography There are two villages forming the commune structure. They are Sofia and Balceana. The center of commune is located in village Sofia. The commune populated by 3630 inhabitants (the year 2000). Both localities have very similar population density (Sofia populated by 1684 peoples and Balceana by 1946 ones). Respectively 481 and 607 families are presented in both settlements with the average family size of 3,2 -3,5 persons.

Currently the proportion (in %) between under able-bodied, able-bodied and over able-bodied age-clusters is 28,6:60,5:10,9. The sex structure is 50:50 taking into consideration the whole population. The number of born in the commune was 30, but the number of decease – 24.

Economic structure The vine factory in Sofia is the important agro-producer. The production dynamic of factory, named “FABSO” is presented in the table below. In the year 2001 the vine production, valued to the 941000 Lei, has been completely realized in Moldova.

Product produced year Units 1999 2000 2001 Vine products (FABSO) Dal 31500 58900 29600

The principal activity of the peasants is agriculture. They proceed arable crops and perennial plantations. The total production of basic crops (in tons) and the productivity of ara ble lands (in metric centner per ha) are presented in the following table.

Crop Area cultivated (ha) Yield (tone) Average productivity (centner/ha) Maize 819 3276 40 Winter wheat 60 150 25 Pea-beans 26 54 20 Haricot 2 4 20 Alfalfa (lucerne) 0.5 15 300 Sunflower 21 32 15 Vegetables 8 160 200

The yield (in tons)/productivity (centner per ha) of orchards and vineyards during last decade are presented in the following table for the former collective farm in Sofia. Type Year of planta tion 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 Fruit I 29/13.1 n.d.a. 155/--- 20/11.3 90/25.1 62/18.8 330/94.3 97/28.4 n.d.a. n.d.a. Fruit II 15/14.6 52/11.3 31/--- 44/--- 8/1.4 114/23.2 235/48.9 n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Grape 980/28 1219/32 504/--- 237/1 1 783/21 489/34 166/13 143/9 n.d.a. n.d.a.

The local farmers every year have collect varying amount of the seed-fruits, stone- fruits and grapes. The variation of seed-fruit production is 20-330 tones, stone-fruit is 8-235 tones and grapes is 143-1219 tones. The average estimated yields of community perennial plantations are – 100-120 tones of seeds -fruits, 60-80 tones of stone-fruits and 400-700 tones of grapes.

There is no information available concerning the productivity of multi annual plantations in the private sector for the Sofia commune.

The total number of land’s shares in the commune is 1279. Each land-share is evaluated as 1,21 ha, including 0,70 ha of arable lands, 0,2 ha of orchards and 0,31 ha of vineyards. The number of individual farms is 830. There is no any agro - enterprises or farmers association in the commune.

Agricultural land use pattern The agriculture lands in the limits of Sofia commune is covers 2263 ha from which the arable lands are dominated as they occupies 1254 ha or 55,4% from the total zone of the agro-lands. The multi-annual plantations has been planted at the territory of 656 ha (29%). The dominated type of perennials is vineyards (426 ha). The fruit orchards are situated at the territory of 229 ha. The grasslands and pastures occupy 353 ha or represented by 15,6% of the territory of lands classified as agricultural ones. In general for the commune 0,62 ha of productive land is available per one commune’s inhabitant, including 0,34 of arable fields, 0,18 ha of perennial plantation and 0,1 ha of grasslands.

In the limit of the Sofia commune the farmers individually manage all the lands.

Hydrological network The surface water hydrology of the Sofia commune is presented mainly by the Lapusnita river channel by the two-kilometer river segment. The small creeks are crossing the territory of villages Sofia and Balceana and junctions to the Lapusnita main stream from both side of the river bank. A small ground reservoir received filtrated underground and atmospheric water was dug by the commune in the flood zone of the river Lapusnita valley.

Irrigation and drainage Previously the small-scale irrigation (30-33 ha) for the lands located in the floodplain of the Lapusnita has been organized by the mobile equipment. Currently there are no irrigation patterns in practice. The drainage channel evacuated underground waters from the Lapusnita floodplain are poorly maintained which provoke high underground level at several places.

Livestock In the commune all livestock is managed at the private base. The total number of livestock in the year 2000 was 416 heads of caws, 697 of pigs, 1376 of sheep, 168 of horses, 385 rabbits and more than 22000 of poultry. There are several field stall- camps are organized by the community for the summer maintenance of sheep livestock and they are allocated out of residential area at the non-productive lands, landslides, near forests, high slope terraces, etc. For maintenance of the other kind of livestock each villager have to construct an animal yard at the territory of the household. In the Soviet time there are two farms has been build. One of them (old) is located to the west direction from the Sofia village and situated in the limits of village industrial zone near tractor brigade. The new one was build at the opposite bank of the Lapusnita river. Both constructions is damaged and not operated.

Natural resources

Machinery/Equipment The structure of machinery and agricultural equipment are presented in the table below. Year Type of farming

Plugs Lorries Tractors Combines Tractor trailers Planting machines Irrigation machines of organic fertilisers Tools for application of mineral fertilisers Tools for application Spreading equipment Cultivators + harrows

1999 Big agro-enterprises 10 4 5 2 12 0 4 0 3 0 0 Small farmers associations 3 0 2 0 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 Individual farmers 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2002 Big agro-enterprises n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Small farmers associations n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Individual farmers n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a.

Infrastructure According to the information received from the village authorities there are two boreholes in Sofia are provided water to the population. One borehole is located at the tractor brigade and can supply piped water to the around 100 households. There are no pumps installed at the moment and borehole is not in operation. One borehole, owned by the Primaria, is located at the territory of the vine factory and serve about 60 families. In the Balceana village one borehole was build in the area of the garage and should supply the school and population. Currently a facility is out of use. There are two WWTPs was constructed in Sofia village. One, located at the bank of the Lapusnita, has been designated to ensure treatment of wastewater from the school and administration buildings. The facility is physically destroyed completely. Another WWTP is located at the territory of the vine factory and capable to be operated as assumed by village authority. The roads in the limits of Sofia commune covers 110 ha. The principal road coated by asphalt is connected village with the neighbor communities – Lapusna and Negrea. There are number of gravel or un-paved field roads are available. The area under construction is covered 144 ha, including village buildings and households (78 ha) and streets (66 ha). There are number of public facilities has been build in both villages. They are: service combinate in Sofia, 2 bath-houses, libraries and cultural centers in both villages. The electricity, telephone and mail service is available in both rural settlements.

Market The nearest regional market in available in village Carpineni. The markets in Hincesti and Chisinau are prefers by the farmers.

Commune Negrea

Position The commune Negrea is the smallest commune selected to be a part of the pilot area and situated at the middle section of the study zone. The territory of commune is spreads at the west-east direction at the distance of 12-15 km. The commune bordering by the neighborhood communities Crasnoarmeiscoe and Sofia (commune under consideration in the pilot area) from the north and west, Mere seni from the east and Carpineni (pilot commune) from the east and south.

Area and land-use The total area of the commune Negrea is 2725 ha. The agriculture land use pattern is dominated as agricultural fields covers 1617 ha (59,3% from the total commune territory). Forested land is a second important land-use. Forests growing at the territory of 863 ha which is equal to the 31,7%. The roads and the territory of settlement occupies 66 ha (2,4%) and 63 ha (2,3%) correspondingly. Surface water cover 12 ha or 0,4% from the overall commune’s area. The 104 ha (3,8%) of the other land-types presented by 5 ha of ravines and 16 ha of landslides.

From the total commune’s zone farmers own 1112 ha of lands. It is about 40,8% from the total lands available in the limits of the commune. The forestry authority have responsibility to manage 783 ha (28,7%), but the water ones – 5 ha (0,2%). The industrial, transport and telecommunication enterprises located at the area of 6 ha (0,2%). The Primaria is responsible for the common public lands at 543 ha, represented 19,9% of the area.

Population and demography It is only one village, named Negrea, compose the commune. At the level of the year 2000 the total population in the village is 2300 inhabitants aggregated in 728 families. The average family consists from 3,2 family members. The demographic statistics for the Negrea commune shows that young population is presented by 628 children and teenagers (27,8%). There are 1407 men and women (62,4%) within the able -bodied age category. And over able-bodied clusters is forming by 221 pensioners (9,8%). The sex structure is closely to the 1:1 proportion as 1139 of men in all age categories and 1124 women are live in the commune. The other demographic indices shows that the number of born in the commune was 34, but the number of decease – 29. There are 3 cases of infants (under one year age) mortality has been registered in the year …..

Economic structure There are two small economic entities, dealing with wood processing and meat production, are relevant to the commune farmer’s association, called “SRL Negrea- Pomvit”. It is very small enterprises and the productions are slightly varying from year to year as indicated in the table below.

Product year Produc Realized on a market ed Units Value In Lei In Lei Wood materials 1999 - - 1 600 2 800 (SRL Negrea- Pomvit) 2000 - - 1 800 2 700 2001 - - 1 200 1 800 Meat (SRL 1999 Tons 2 24 000 16 000 Negrea-Pomvit) 2000 Tons 1 16 000 7 000 2001 Tons 1 8 000 4 000

The principal activity in the commune is agriculture. The local farmers proceed arable crops and perennial plantations. The total production of basic crops (in tons) and the productivity of arable lands (in metric centner per ha) are presented in the following table. Crop Area cultivated (ha) Yield (tone) Average productivity (centner/ha) Maize 233 932 40 Winter wheat 472 1369 29 Pea-beans 12 18 15 Alfalfa (lucerne) 10 280 280 Sunflower 86 146 17 Vegetables 8 104 130

The yield (in tons) and productivity (centner per ha) of orchards and vineyards during last decade are presented in the following table for the former collective farm in village Negrea. Type Year of planta tion 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 Fruit I 88/16,9 26/4,1 316/--- 86/10,3 258/31 5/0,6 1064/12 113/13,6 4/0,7 n.d.a. 8,1 Fruit II 7/13,8 7/--- 30/--- 47/29,4 60/18,8 60/17,6 36/11,2 88/27,5 45/17,3 n.d.a. Grape 1022/29 1706/48 1356/--- 598/19 1422/43 945/29 289/9 327/12 866/42 n.d.a.

The local farmers, working collectively, yearly are harvesting the different amount of fruits and grapes. The variation of seed-fruit is 4-1064 tones, stone-fruit is 7-88 tones and grapes is 289-1706 tones. In average the agricultural production of community was – 150-300 tones of seeds-fruits, 30-50 tones of stone-fruits and 900-1000 tones of grapes.

According to the statistical information for the year ….. the private sector of the commune collect 11 tones of seed-fruits (harvested at the 17 ha), 19 tones of stone- fruits (from the 17 ha) and 175 tones of vine grapes (from the area of 175 ha).

The total number of land’s shares in the commune is 772. Each land-share is evaluated as 1,20 ha, including 0,70 ha of arable lands, 0,15 ha of orchards and 0,35 ha of vineyards. The number of individual farms is 190. There is one SRL Company organized in the commune.

Agricultural land use pattern In the year 2001 the 1617 ha of lands in the frame of Negrea commune territory has been considered as productive enough for agriculture purposes. The arable lands presents the bulk of land-use pattern as they cover 761 ha or 47,1% of the area of agriculture fields. The perennial plantations presenting 30,1% of agro -lands and occupies 486 ha in total. They mainly consist from the vineyards at 368 ha. The rest 118 ha is used for growing of fruit-trees. The grasslands and pastures occupy 373 ha and represent by 22,9% of the lands classified as agricultural ones. The indices of agricultural lands availability in the commune is: 0,7 ha of productive land per one person, which is shared to 0,33 ha of arable plots, 0,21 ha of perennial plantation and 0,16 ha of graslands.

The principal landowner in the region is an agro -company with limited responsibility processing the agriculture at the collective base. The “SRL Negrea-Pomvit”, transformed from the former state agricultural enterprises “sovhoz Negrea”, is manipulating 664 ha of lands (59,7% of total agro -lands). As reported by the Primaria office the “SRL Negrea-Pomvit” currently is under re-organisation and it is expected that company will be transformed to the individual farms. At the same time 296 ha of private lands and 131 ha of gardens is reported to be under individual responsibility of local farmers, already decided to work at the private base. The Primaria also provide 21 ha for the villagers, which have no land-share rights.

Hydrological network The surface water in the limits of Negrea community is presented by the Lapusnita river channel crossing the commune’s territory by 2,5 kilometer segment. The small lake (2 -2,5 ha) in the Lapusnita floodplain and one creek, originated at the old part of the village is form a hydrological network. The total surface of water bodies in the limits of commune is 12 ha.

Irrigation and drainage Only 13 ha of floodplain have been under small-scale irrigation. The water has been pumped from Lapusnita by mobile dizel or electrical pumps to the water tower and after distributed to the irrigation area. Currently the irrigation is very limited. The drainage channel evacuated underground waters from the Lapusnita floodplain are poorly maintained which provoke high underground level at several places.

Livestock In the commune all livestock, except about 50 pigs in public sector, is managed at the private individual base. The total number of livestock in the year 2000 was 347 heads of caws, 474 of pigs, 534 of sheep, 85 of horses, 58 rabbits and more than 24000 of poultry. The sheep’s stall-camps are constructed out of village territory at the non-productive lands, landslides, near forests, high slope terraces, etc. But all remaining livestock is kept at the areas near living facilities of the farmers. One cattle farm was constructed at the south curb of the village. Currently the facility is not in use.

Natural resources

Machinery/Equipment The structure of machinery and agricultural equipment are presented in the table below. Year Type of farming

Plugs Lorries Tractors Combines ading equipment Tractor trailers Planting machines Irrigation machines of organic fertilisers Tools for application of mineral fertilisers Tools for application Spre Cultivators + harrows

1999 Big agro-enterprises 20 25 10 6 14 37 8 2 4 1 2 Small farmers associations 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Individual farmers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2002 Big agro-enterprises 14 12 6 5 30 18 5 1 2 1 0 Small farmers associations n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Individual farmers n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a.

Infrastructure As it has been reported by the representatives from village Primaria practically all villagers have access to the piped water extracted from two boreholes and springs. The majority of population is connected to the number of small water pipes transported water from the springs located in many places in the old part of the settlement. The wastewater from the school and childrengarden was intended to be evacuated to the cattle farm treatment facilities, which is actually completely ruined. There are no wastewater originated and transported to treatment facilities at these sources now. The roads in the limits of Negrea commune covers 66 ha with the important roadway Lapusna -Minjir. There are number of scattered by gravel or un-paved field roads are available. The area under construction is covered 63 ha, including village buildings and households (18 ha) and streets (45 ha). One house of culture and two libraries are available in the village as well as electricity, telephone and mail service.

Market The nearest market place is situated in village Carpineni which have regional importance.

Commune Carpineni

Position Carpineni is the biggest commune within the pilot area and located in the middle stream of the Lapusnita river. The territory of commune is aggregated around the village Carpineni. The neighbor communities are Negrea, Minjir (both located within the pilot area), Crasnoarmeiscoe, Dancu, Cioara, Valea Florii, Sarata Galbena and Mereseni.

Land-use and land-ownership The total area of the commune is 13 614 ha. The land-use pattern in the Carpineni commune is following: 10112 ha of agriculture lands (74,3%), 2250 ha of forests (16,5%), 158 ha of wetlands and surface water bodies (1,2%), 286 ha of roads (2,1%), 546 ha of settlements (4%) and 262 ha of other lands (1,9%) consists partly from 40 ha of ravines and 104 ha of landslides.

Actually, the land ownership pattern for the commune Carpineni is following as described later. In the 2001 year 9121 ha of lands (66,9%) is owned by the local farmers. The forestry authority deals with the 2109 ha of lands (15,5%). The responsibility of water authority is designated to the area of 16 ha (0,1%). Industrial, transport and communication enterprises have the rights to the 36 ha of lands (0,3 %). The residential area is 1064 ha (7,8%). Besides the public authorities has responsible for the administration of public lands for the common land-use purposes at the area of 1268 ha (9,3%).

Population and demography There are two rural settlements in the commune. The biggest in the pilot area village Carpineni, populated by 11614 peoples, is a center of the commune. In addition with the 1064 inhabitants lives in village Horjesti, the total population of the commune exceeds 12 500 persons. The number o f families is 4682, from which 4258 is located in the Carpineni and 424 – in Horjesti. The average family is presented by 2,7 members.

The demography indices for the commune represents that 30% of population is in the age of under able -bodied cluster, 59,3% is working-age men and women, and 11,8% is a pensioners. The sex ration is 1:1 taking consideration the overall population in the commune. The other demographic indicators indicate that in the year ….. 141 children were born and 123 persons were died.

Economic structure The commune Carpineni is important economic center of the region. There are several agro-processing enterprises at various scales are presented in the village economic profile. As reported by the statistical office they are: meat, flour and bread production facilities, fodder preparation factory, agro -machinery reparation center, vine factory and several others. The production of enterprises is presented in the table below.

Product year produc Realized on a market ed Units Value In Lei In Lei Meat 1999 Tons No produced - - Meat (SRL 2000 Tons 32 - - Carpineni) Meat (Meriada) 2001 tons 12 - - Meat (Carpin- 2001 Tons 0,2 4 000 2 000 Agro) Flour (Meriada) 1999 Tons 2262 810000 1073000 Flour (Carpineni) 2000 Tons 2323 818000 40200 0 Flour (Meriada) 2001 Tons 1242 354000 15600 Grain (Meriada) 1999 Tons 16 15000 21000 Grain (Carpineni) 2000 Tons 4 6000 11000 Grain (Meriada) 2001 Tons 557 31000 2800 Fodder (Meriada) 1999 Tons 3553 1302000 123000 Fodder 2000 Tons 521 665000 11000 (Carpineni) Fodder (Meriada) 2001 Tons 192 184000 2100 Bread (Meriada) 1999 Tons Bread (Carpineni) 2000 Tons 115 135000 197000 Bread (Meriada) 2001 Tons 4 9000 11100 Fodder flour 1999 Tons 800 91000 42000 (zerno droblenoe) (Carpineni) Fodder flour 2000 Tons 1018 85000 6000 (Carpineni) Fodder flour 2001 - No produced - - (Carpineni) Bottled vine (SRL 1999 Dal 5900 - - Carpineni) Bottled vine (SRL 2000 Dal 800 - - Carpineni) Bottled vine 2001 Dal No produced - - Vine product (SRL 1999 Dal 53400 - - Carpineni) Vine product (SRL 2000 Dal 181500 - - Carpineni) Vine product (SRL 2001 Dal 16800 - - Meriada)

According to the statistical information in the year 2000 the SRL “Carpineni” have market for the vine products at the volume of 11055000 Lei. The bulk of vine production has been exported outside of Moldova and has been sailed in the NIS countries (9135000 Lei). But in the year 2001 the new enterprises in Carpineni, named as SRL “Meriada”, have sail the vine materials only in Moldova at the volume of 527 000 Lei.

The principal activity of the farmers, populated the commune, is agriculture. They proceed arable crops and perennial plantations. The total production of basic crops (in tons) and the productivity of arable lands (in metric centner per ha) are presented in the following table. Crop Area cultivated (ha) Yield (tone) Average productivity (centner/ha) Maize 3600 7920 22 Winter wheat 1200 3000 25 Sunflower 900 1080 12 Vegetables 15 270 180

The yield (in tons) and productivity (centner per ha) of orchards and vineyards during last decade are presented in the following table for the former collective farm in commune Carpineni. Type Year of planta tion 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 Fruit I 94/6.5 325/9.5 2649/--- 295/7.4 3142/79. 1334/32. 8198/164 2553/61. 89/--- 888/--- 3 4 .8 4 Fruit II 70/19.3 52/13.2 87/--- 40/12.2 11/3.4 224/43.9 108/26.2 90/9.8 66/--- 92/--- Grape 5944/28 6069/91 7090/--- 3748/57 7539/115 5982/89 854/10 4006/57 3344/37 n.d.a.

The local farmers, working collectively, yearly are harvesting the different amount of fruits and grapes. The variation of seed-fruit is 89-8198 tones per year, stone-fruit is 11-224 tones per year and grapes is 854-7539 tones. The theoretical average of the agricultural production of community was – 1800-2100 tones of seeds -fruits, 70-90 tones of stone-fruits and 4000-6000 tones of grapes.

According to the statistical information for the year ….. the private sector of the commune collect 42 tones of seed-fruits (harvested at the 41 ha) and 145 tones of vine grapes (from the area of 70 ha).

The total number of land’s shares in the commune is 3711. Each land-share is evaluated as 1,83 ha, including 1,45 ha of arable lands, 0,13 ha of orchards and 0,25 ha of vineyards. The number of individual farms is 437. There are three SRLs are created in the commune.

Agricultural land use pattern The principal land-use pattern in the Carpineni commune is cultivation of crops at the arable lands. From the total lands of 10112 ha, available for agriculture, the arable lands occupies 70,6% or 7141 ha. The perennial plantations covers 1738 ha or 17,2% and presented by 617 ha of fruit-trees orchards, 1099 ha of vineyards and 22 ha of other perennial plantations. The pastures alloc ated at the 1233 ha or at the 12,2% of the agricultural area. The indices of agriculture land availability in the limits of commune indicate that 0,8 ha per person, including 0,56 ha of arable lands and 0,14 ha of perennial plantations, and 0,1 ha of pastures is generally available for the agriculture activities.

In the year 2001 the principal land owner in the commune was agro -firm SRL “Carpineni”, which managing 7467 ha of lands, equivalently to the 81,9% from the total agricultural lands. Individual farmers not aggregated at any formal collectives have only 750 ha of lands (or 8,2%). The gardens are managed individually or privately at the area of 829 ha. About 70 ha of lands has been transferred from the reserve land to the villagers as a land compensation. Currently the agro-firm SRL “Carpineni” has been modified to 3 smaller farmers associations.

Hydrological network The Lapusnita main stream is crossing the territory of commune from the north to the south-west. From the left and right banks the Lapusnita river has received water coming by a number of creaks runs through the residential areas of village Carpineni. Village Carpineni is located at the both sides of the river valley. The second commune’s settlement – village Horjesti is located at the tributary to the Lapusnita, which originated at the north from the village. The tributary’s flow regime is regulated by two dams. One of them is constructed to the north from the Horjesti at the distance of 2,5 km upstream. The next weir is forming water reservoir located at the territory of another community – Minjir. Until the year 1994 the relatively big water reservoir, named “Carpineni” was situated in the middle of the village Carpineni. The reservoir has been constructed in the year 1960 for accumulation of water from the Lapusnita river The designing characteristics of the named water body was: catchment area – 307 km2, distance to the Prut river – 25,5 km, river-bed located with multi-annual water regime, the maximal depth 3-3,5 m, water surface – 65,2 ha, water volume – 1,28 mln m3, fish production – 350 kg/ha. The recreation, flood control and reservation of water for the downstream located reservoir “Minjir” mainly utilized for irrigation purposes are important use- patterns of the “Carpineni” water body. After the torrent rains and floods the dam was broken and the lake is physically not presented now. The dam structure connects two parts of village Carpineni and intended to regulate water level at “Carpineni” water reservoir, has not been repa ired until now.

The total area of surface water in the borders of commune, as indicated in the state land cadastre, is 134 ha from which 101 ha is a lake.

Irrigation and drainage In soviet time a huge irrigation scheme was realized. The irrigation water has been pumped from the river Prut and from the water reservoir “Minjir”. In total 17 pumping stations supported by water regulation reservoirs and facilities was constructed. The total area under irrigation is ……. ha. The irrigation land massive was allocated at the western region from the Carpineni and at the north-west from the village Horjesti. Currently the scheme is not in operation. The basic capital infrastructure and pipes are damaged, absent or ruined.

Livestock The total number of livestock in the year 2000 has been reported to the statistical office as 1072 heads of caws, 3313 of pigs, 4710 of sheep, 235 of horses, 504 of rabbits and more than 35000 of various species of poultry. The livestock is managed at private individual and at public manners. Actually 91,9% of cattle, 84,8% of pigs, 73,3% of sheep, 77% of horses, 100% of rabbits and poultry are private. The numbers of field stall-camps are organized by the community for the summer maintenance of sheep livestock and they are allocated out of residential area at the non-productive lands, landslides, near forests, high slopes terraces, etc. The farmers’ cattle, pigs and other domestic animals are concentrated at the limits of residential zone.

In the Soviet time there are 4 collective livestock farms has been constructed around village Carpineni. Two of them are located at the left bank of the river Lapusnita at the north extremity of the village. One pig farm was build near village’s garage and fodder processing factory. The next big cattle farm has been constructed at the south-west direction from the village. In addition near village Horjesti two cattle farms was build as well. One of them is a big complex at the north from the village and one is a small facility at the south part of the settlement. There are no former farms have been found to be in operation as very limited livestock heads (50-100 cattle, 400-600 pigs) are publicly owned.

Natural resources

Machinery/Equipment The structure of machinery and agricultural equipment are presented in the table below. Year Type of farming

ation

Plugs Lorries Tractors Combines Tractor trailers Planting machines Irrigation machines of organic fertilisers Tools for application of mineral fertilisers Tools for applic Spreading equipment Cultivators + harrows

1999 Big agro-enterprises 156 104 145 41 101 106 69 93 45 1 8 Small farmers associations 16 3 3 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 Individual farmers 15 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2002 Big agro-enterprises 74 48 38 20 18 93 33 0 18 0 4 Small fa rmers associations n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Individual farmers n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a.

Infrastructure The water supply is available only for a part of population in Carpineni. One system is connected to the battery of shallow wells located at the west area from the village. The other system is spring source system and received water from the wooded area at the north from the village. Water is collected in the reservoirs and transported to the village by pipe. There are few small local spring water pipes are available in the other parts of the village. Several boreholes are in operation and provide water to the hospital, vine factory, industrial factories. Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was built in Carpineni in order to treat wastewater from the factory and municipal wastewater as well. The WWTP is not in operation as it has been destroyed after the flood in 1994. The design of new facility is prepared but there is no fund available for construction of new infrastructure.

The roads in the limits of Carpineni commune covers 286 ha. The principal roadway is Minjir-Lapusna crossing the village Carpineni. There is lots of gravel or un-paved and field roads are available. The area under construction is covered 546 ha, including village buildings and households (323 ha) and streets (223 ha). There are number of public social facilities has been build in Carpineni and Horjesti. They are: service combinate, two hair-dresses units, bath-house, hospital (250 beds capacity) and polyclinic, house of culture and library and hotel in Carpineni. The house of culture and one library is available in Horjesti village. The electricity, telephone and mail service is generally available in commune.

Market There is regional biggest market is situated in village Carpineni. The important market for the villagers are the market options available in the towns Hincesti and Chisinau also.

Commune Minjir

Position The commune Minjir is forms the south part of the Lapusnita river basin. From the north the commune have a border with communes Carpineni (pilot area) and Cioara. At the east direction it is bordering with Valea Florii and Orac communities. From the south the are as of communes Covurlui and Tomai is limit the territory of commune Minjir. It should be mentioned that at the territory of Tomai commune (the commune is out of pilot area) the extreme south point of Lapusnita watersheed area is located. The river Lapusnita is forming the western boundary of the Minjir commune territory. At the opposite bank the communes Voinescu and Tochile -Raducani are located and both are part of the pilot study area.

Land-use and land-ownership The total area of the commune is 7602 ha. The bulk of land is designated for the agricultural purposes. The agro -lands occupy 5106 ha, which is equal to 67,2% of total commune zone. The forests is a second important land-use as they covers 1483 ha or 19,5%. Wetlands and water bodies allocated at the 421 ha, represent 5,5% of commune lands. Roads and settlements take 178 ha (2,3%) and 191 ha (2,5%) respectively. The other lands consists from 8 ha of ravines and 99 ha of landslides in total cover 223 ha (2,9%).

As reported by the state land cadas tre 4033 ha (53,1%) of commune lands is managed by private farmers. Industry and transport facilities located at the 9 ha (0,1%). Forestry and water authorities are responsible to operate 1347 ha (17,7%) and 318 ha (4,2%) of lands in the frame of commune area. Living buildings are aggregated at the territory of village in total located at 499 ha (6,6%). The public authority is responsible for 1396 ha of lands or 18,4% from the total lands.

Population and demography There are two villages forming the commune structure. They are Minjir, the center of the commune, with total population of 5988 inhabitants or 2047 families and Semionovca village populated by 60 peoples or 21 families. Semionovca is a smallest settlement within the study area. The average size of family is 2,9 members.

It is 1814 children and teenagers are living in the commune. This age-related cluster presents 32,2% of total population. The able-bodied population consists from 3181 inhabitants, which is 56,4%. At the same time 645 persons within the over able - bodied cluster are presents 11,4% from the total population in the commune. The sex-related structure is closely to the 50:50 considering overall population as 2839 of men and 2831 of women are lives in commune. In the year …. the number of born in the commune was 71, but the number of decease – 70.

Economic structure The community Minjir has important agro-processing value in the region. The number of enterprises is operated within the limits of commune. They are flour preparation unit, vegetable oil press, canning and fodder factory. The production is shown in the dynamic for the last 3 years in the table below. Product year produc Realized on a market ed Units Value In Lei In Lei Flour (SA 1999 Tons 1496 150000 96000 Podgoria) Fl our (SA Minjir- 2000 Tons 337 134000 10000 Agro) Flour (SA Minjir- 2001 Tons 715 137000 71000 Agro) Fodder flour (SA 1999 Tons 72 292000 - Podgoria) Fodder flour (SA 2000 Tons Not produced - - Podgoria) Fodder flour (SA 2001 Tons Not produced - - Podgoria) Fodder (SA 1999 Tons 328 109000 - Podgoria) Fodder (SA Minjir- 2000 Tons No produced - - Agro) Fodder (SA Minjir- 2001 Tons 149 124000 - Agro) Vegetable oil (SA 1999 Tons 43 27000 28000 Podgoria) Vegetable oil (SA 2000 Tons 25 31000 2000 Minjir-Agro) Vegetable oil (SA 2001 Tons 30 28000 2000 Minjir-Agro) Vegetable tins (SA 1999 Tons 173 418000 265000 Podgoria) Vegetable tins (SA 2000 Tons 33 126000 58000 Minjir-Agro) Vegetable tins (SA 2001 Tons 227 669000 741000 Minjir-Agro) Tomato cans (SA 1999 Tons 49 113000 17000 Podg oria) Tomato cans (SA 2000 Tons 68 194000 937000 Minjir-Agro) Tomato cans (SA 2001 Tons 107 293000 305000 Minjir-Agro) Fruit compotes 1999 Tons 24 72000 55000 (SA Podgoria) Fruit compotes 2000 Tons 209 738000 548000 (SA Minjir-Agro) Fruit compotes 2001 Tons 299 939000 644000 (SA Minjir-Agro) Natural juice (SA 1999 Tons 6 26000 - Podgoria) Natural juice (SA 2000 Tons 239 791000 389000 Minjir-Agro) Natural juice (SA 2001 Tons 360 985000 565000 Minjir-Agro) Meat (SA 1999 Tons No produced - - Podgoria Meat (SA Minjir- 2000 Tons 5.2 - 33000 Agro) Meat (SA Minjir- 2001 Tons No produced - - Agro) Vine products (SA 1999 Dal Not produced - - Podgoria) Vine products (SA 2000 Dal 64300 - 1400000 Minjir-Agro) Vine products (SA 2001 Dal No produced - - Minjir-Agro)

The local farmers mainly occupies by the cultivation of lands. They proceed arable crops and perennial plantations. The total production of basic crops (in tons) and the productivity of arable lands (in metric centner per ha) are presented in the following table. Crop Area cultivated (ha) Yield (tone) Average productivity (centner/ha) Maize 500 1750 35 Winter wheat 850 2720 32 Pea-beans 150 255 17 Sunflower 400 680 17 Tobacco 35 53 15 Vegetables 70 735 105

The yield (in tons) and productivity (centner per ha) of orchards and vineyards during last decade are presented in the following table for the former collective farm in the commune Minjir. Type Year of planta tion 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 199 8 1999 2000 Fruit I 55/7 97/6.4 1092/--- 98/6.5 581/31.5 82/4.9 2273/146 815/49.1 49/--- n.d.a. .6 Fruit II 286/51.5 201/19 328/--- 217/13.9 272/11.3 525/29.8 493/28.8 321/15.8 269/--- n.d.a. Grape 369/6 1246/36 1322/--- 583/16 1464/40 1101/30 172/35 894 /23 637/--- n.d.a.

Previously at the base of former collective agro -processing technology the fluctuation of seed-fruit yields in the Minjir was between 49 and 2273 tones per year with multi - annual average 500-650 tones. The yields of stone-fruits was in limits of 201 – 525 tones, averaging to the 300-400 tones yearly. The production of vineyards provide between 583 and 1464 tones with average about 800-950 tones.

According to the statistical information for the year ….. the private sector of the commune collect 125 tones of seed-fruits (harvested at the 21 ha), 309 tones of stone-fruits (at 62 ha) and 248 tones of vine grapes (from the area of 83 ha).

The total number of land’s shares in the commune is 1446. Each land-share is evaluated as 1,44 ha, including 1,09 ha of arable lands, 0,17 ha of orchards and 0,18 ha of vineyards. The number of individual farms is 528. There is one joint-stockholder community and 3 limited companies are created in the commune.

Agricultural land use pattern The total agriculture lands in the frame of Minjir commune is 5106 ha. The arable land-use is important one and presents 3370 ha of lands or 66%. The perennial plantations is aggregated at the territory of 896 ha (17,5%) presented equally by vineyards (449 ha) and orchards (442 ha). The floodlands and grass pastures located at the 840 ha or 16,5% from the total lands designated for agriculture. Per one person populated commune 0,84 ha of agro-land is available, including 0,55 ha of arable lands, 0,15 ha of orchards and vineyards and 0,14 ha of grasslands.

According to the land cadastre the principal land-processing pattern in the commune is collective one. The individual farmers have only 821 ha of lands (20,4%). Basing on the state land cadastre at the same time 4 associations of farmers owns 2712 ha (67,3%). They are SA “Minjir Agro” (72 ha), SRL “Sarbiu” (965 ha), SRL “Tobai” (838 ha), SRL “Iarmala” (837 ha). In the 2001year 428 ha of orchards has been owned by collective farms or individual farmers. The Primaria provide 72 ha of lands for the new members of community that have no land-share rights at the moment of land privatization.

Hydrological network The surface water hydrology in the borders of Minjir commune is presented mainly by the Lapusnita river and the big water reservoir named “Minjir”. The “Minjir” reservoir has been constructed in 1982 for irrigation and water supply. The waters from Lapusnita and pumped water from the Prut river should seasonally filled reservoir. The catchment area is 377 km2 and the distance to the Lapusnita mount is 13 km. The depth of the reservoir is projected to be 8-9 m, the water mirror – 314 ha, and water volume accumulated 15,6 mln m3 at the full capacity. The area of 7600 ha is intended to be irrigated from this reservoir and in soviet time the irrigation scheme has been realized at the lands of communities Carpineni, Minjir and Voinescu.

There are two tributaries of the Lapusnita river are flowing through the commune territory. One of them is regulated by the dam, located upstream of village and forming a water body. This tributary is functioning the river Lapusnita after passing the residential area of the Minjir village. The second tributary flowing within the territory of Minjir commune is originated locally and one small dam accumulates water in the water body. This tributary is the last tributary of Lapusnita river, and passing to the territory of Tomai commune, where regulated by the series of 4 reservoirs before junction point with Lapusnita river.

Irrigation and drainage The irrigation lands of the Minjir commune (in total 1550 ha) was a part of big irrigation scheme described for the Carpineni. The irrigation fields were located at the west-north from Semenovca village and to the north from Minjir one. The syste m is not in operation and destroyed. Currently, by the small-scale irrigation about 50-70 ha of land is irrigated.

Livestock The total number of livestock in the year 2000 was 860 heads of cattle, 1049 of pigs, 2960 of sheep, 97 of horses, 720 rabbits and more than 16000 of poultry. The livestock is predominantly private and only 81 of caws and 154 of pigs are kept as a public property. There are several stall-camps has been build in order to maintain of sheep at the non-productive lands, landslides, near forests, high slopes terraces, etc. As usual all the other kinds of livestock are maintained at the country yards of villagers.

In the Soviet time there are 3 livestock facility has been build. Two of them are quite carefully maintained and all public livestock is aggregated at these facilities.

Natural resources

Machinery/Equipment The structure of machinery and agricultural equipment are presented in the table below. Year Type of farming

gs Plu Lorries Tractors Combines Tractor trailers Planting machines Irrigation machines of organic fertilisers Tools for application of mineral fertilisers Tools for application Spreading equipment Cultivators + harrows

1999 Big agro-enterprises 79 47 50 13 60 96 19 7 15 8 5 Small farmers associations 6 3 4 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 Individual farmers 8 8 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2002 Big agro-enterprises n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Small farmers associations 10 6 3 1 8 0 4 0 0 0 0 Individual farmers 12 14 8 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0

Infrastructure According to the information received from the village authorities there are two boreholes in Minjir are provided water to the population. At the same time the livestock farms have their boreholes as well. The municipal WWTP was constructed at the bank of Lapusnita floodplain, but is not in use during last decade. The facility is deteriorated. The roads in the limits of Minjir commune covers 178 ha. The principal road finished by asphalt is connected village with the neighbor community – Carpineni. There are number of gravel or un-paved field roads are available. The area under construction is covered 191 ha, including village buildings and households (111 ha) and streets (80 ha). There are number of public facilities has been build in village. They are: service combinate, haidress, bath-house, hospital (80 beds) and polyclinic, 3 libraries and cultural center. The electricity, telephone and mail service is available as well.

Market The close located regional market in available in village Carpineni. The markets in Hincesti and Chisinau are also visited by the local farmers.

Commune Voinescu

Position The commune Voinescu is located at the south part of the Lapusnita river catchment. The commune lies at the area on left bank of the river and opposite to the commune Minjir. The west border of commune is forming by the river Prut. The neighbor communes Cioara and Tochile-Raducani (the commune is within the pilot area) are located at the north and at the south respectively.

Land-use and land-ownership The total area of the commune Voinescu is 2775 ha. The agriculture land use pattern is dominated as agricultural fields covers 2283 ha (82,3% from the total commune territory). The territory covered by forests, waters, settlements are less important land-use. Forests growing at the territory of 124 ha which is equal to the 4,5%. The roads and the territory of settlement occupies 85 ha (3,1%) and 132 ha (4,8%) correspondingly. Surface water cover 60 ha or 2,2% from the overall commune’s area. The 91 ha (3,3%) of the other lands presented by 54 ha of ravines and 4 ha of landslides.

From the total commune territory farmers own 1782 ha of lands. It is about 64,2% from the total lands available in the limits of the commune. The forestry authority have responsibility to manage 99 ha (3,6%) but the water ones – 28 ha (1%). The industrial, transport and telecommunication enterprises located at the area of 32 ha (1,2%). The Primaria is responsible for the common public lands at 566 ha, represented 20,4% of the area.

Population and demography It is only one village, named Voinescu, compose the commune. At the level of the year 2000 the total population in the village is 3461 inhabitants aggregated in 1033 families. The average family consists from 3,4 family members. The demographic statistics for the Voinescu commune shows that currently under able-bodied cluster of is presented by 1267 children and teenagers (36.8%). At the same time 1904 men and women (55,2%), within the able-bodied age category, is a dominated age-related cluster. The over able-bodied cluster is forming by 274 pensioners (8%). The sex structure is closely to the 1:1 proportion as 1754 of men in all age categories and 1698 women are lives in the commune. The other demographic indices shows that the number of born in the commune was 42, but the number of decease – 30.

Economic structure The agro-processing industry is limited in the commune. There are only vine production is reported as an industrial activity. The production of commune is shown at the table below.

Product year produc Realized on a market ed Units Value In Lei In Lei Vine materials (SA 1999 Dal 41500 - - Gev Vin Fruct Product) 2000 Dal 16200 - - 2001 Dal No produced - - The vine production in the year 2001 estimated as 1520000 Lei has been partly realised outside of Moldova in the NIS countries at the volume of 1238000 Lei.

The local farmers mainly occupy by the cultivation of lands. They proceed arable crops and perennial plantations. The total production of basic crops (in tons) and the productivity of arable lands (in metric centner per ha) are presented in the following table. Crop Area cultivated (ha) Yield (tone) Average productivity (centner/ha) Maize 777 3186 41 Winter wheat 162 486 30 Pea-beans 29 73 25 Sunflower 143 215 15 Vegetables 38 84 22

The yield (in tons) and productivity (centner per ha) of orchards and vineyards during last decade are presented in the following table for the former collective farm in the commune Voines cu. Type Year of planta tion 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 Fruit I 136/20.9 41/6.2 132/--- 35/7 70/14.3 28/5.7 464/94.7 n.d.a. n.d.a. n.d.a. Fruit II 352/7.5 483/79.2 410/--- 230/20.7 80/7.2 126/14.4 56/6.4 316/58.4 n.d.a. n.d.a. Grape 767/16 715/20 946/--- 269/9 193/6 344/13 24/1 210/19 n.d.a. n.d.a.

Previously at the base of former collective agro -processing technology the fluctuation of seed-fruit yields in the Voinescu was between 28 and 464 tones per year with multi-annual average 100-200 tones. The yields of stone-fruits was in limits of 56 – 483 tones, averaging to the 200 -300 tones yearly. The productions of vineyards provide between 24 and 767 tones with average about 400-500 tones.

According to the statistical information for the year ….. the private sector of the commune collect 9 tones of stone-fruits (growing at 63 ha) and around 600 tones of vine grapes (from the area of 199 ha).

The total number of land’s shares in the commune is 1329. Each land-share is evaluated as 1,14 ha, including 0,98 ha of arable lands, 0,003 ha of orchards and 0,16 ha of vineyards. The number of individual farms is 658. There is one company with limited responsibility is operated in the commune, but the state land cadastre is not reported about.

Agricultural land use pattern In the year 2001 the 2283 ha of lands in the frame of Voinescu commune territory has been considered as productive for agriculture purposes. The arable lands presents the bulk of land-use pattern as they cover 1650 ha or 72,3% of the area of agriculture fields. The perennial plantation presents 13,4% of agro-lands and occupies 306 ha in total. They mainly consist from the vineyards at 237 ha. The rest 69 ha is used for growing of fruit-trees. The grasslands and pastures occupy 327 ha and represent 14,3% of the lands classified as agricultural ones. The agricultural lands availability in the commune is: 0,66 ha of productive land per one person, which is shared to 0,48 ha of arable lands, 0,09 ha of perennial planta tion and 0.09 ha of grasslands.

The principal land-owner is an individual farmer. There are no any formal association or collective of farmers reported by the official cadastre to be created in commune.

Hydrological network The surface water in the limits of Voinescu community is presented by the Lapusnita river channel forming the eastern boundary of commune at the distance of 5 km. The rest of surface water bodies is associated to the Prut river and not represent Lapusnita hydrological network.

Irrigation and drainage The irrigation lands of the Voinescu commune was a part of big irrigation scheme described for the Carpineni. The irrigation fields were located at the west direction from the village. The system is not in operation and destroyed.

Livestock All livestock in the commune is managed at the private individual base. The total number of livestock in the year 2000 was 430 heads of caws, 353 of pigs, 1166 of sheep, 58 of horses, 35 rabbits and more than 6000 of poultry. All livestock is concentrated in the village, except the sheep, which are during worm period, are aggregated in several field camps outside the localities. One cattle and pig farm was constructed at the western region of the village. Currently the facility is not in use.

Natural resources

Machinery/Equipment The structure of machinery and agricultural equipment are presented in the table below.

Year Type of farming

n machines Plugs Lorries Tractors Combines Tractor trailers Planting machines Irrigatio of organic fertilisers Tools for application of mineral fertilisers Tools for application Spreading equipment Cultivators + harrows

1999 Big agro-enterprises 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Small farmers associations 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Individual farmers 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2002 Big agro-enterprises 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Small farmers associations 23 4 16 4 7 0 3 0 5 0 0 Individual farmers 8 9 6 0 4 0 2 0 0 0 0

Infrastructure The roads in the limits of Voinescu commune covers 85 ha and the most important road is crossing Lapusnita floodplain and connected village with the village Minjir. The second important gravel-paved road is located at the Prut river terraces and compose of a part of national road following the western border of the country. There are number of gravel or un-paved field roads are available as well. The area under construction is covered 132 ha, including village buildings and households (70 ha) and streets (62 ha). One service combinate, bath -house, house of culture and 3 libraries has been developed in the village. The technical status of buildings is rather poor now. The electricity, telephone and mail service is available in the village.

Market The closest market place is situated in village Carpineni which have regional importance.

Commune Tochile -Raducani

Position The commune Tochile-Raducani is occupies the south-west part of the Lapusnita river basin. At the territory of commune the Lapusnita river forms a wide wetland delta and discharged to the Prut river. The territory of commune is aggregated around the villages Tochile-Raducani and Sarata-Razesi and flattering along the Prut river valley. The neighbor communities are: Voinescu (commune located within the pilot zone) at the north, Minjir (locality under consideration as a pilot area) and Tomai at the east. At the south the community is bordering to the municipal area of the Leova town.

Land-use and land-ownership The total area of the commune is 5048 ha. The land use pattern in the Tochile- Raducani commune presented in the state land cadastre is as prescribed later. The community have 3924 ha of agricultural lands (77,7%), 536 ha of forests (10,6%), 167 ha of wetlands and surface water bodies (3,3%), 176 ha of roads (3,5%), 138 ha of residential areas (2,7%) and 107 ha of other lands (2,1%), which includes 6 ha of ravines and 4 ha of landslides.

At the level of 2001 year, the land ownership pattern for the commune Tochile- Raducani was following: 3046 ha of lands (60,3%) is owned by the farmers. The forestry authority deals with 423 ha of lands (8,4%). The responsibility of water authority is designated to the area of 109 ha (2,2%). Industry, transport and communication enterprises have the rights to the 91 ha of lands (1,8%). The residential rural area is covered 268 ha (5,3%). In addition the public authorities has responsible for the administration of public lands for the common land-use purposes at the area of 1111 ha (22%).

Population and demography There are two rural settlements compose the commune. The biggest in the commune is village Tochile-Raducani, populated by 1707 peoples, and it is a center of the commune. In addition with the 1540 inhabitants lives in village Satara-Razesi, the total population of the commune is 3247 persons. The total number of families is 1075, from which 4558 are lives in the village Tochile-Raducani and 517 – in village Satata -Razesi. Statistically calculated 3-3,1 members per family is presents the average family size.

The demography indices for the commune are not available yet.

Economic structure The economic structure for the commune is not available yet.

The total number of land’s shares in the commune is 1615. Each land-share is evaluated as 1,76 ha, including 1,53 ha of arable lands, 0,13 ha of orchards. The number of individual farms is 225. There are two companies with limited responsibilities are created in the commune.

Agricultural land use pattern The principal land-use pattern in the Tochile-Raducani commune is cultivation of crops at the arable lands. From the total lands of 3924 ha, available for agriculture, the arable lands occupies 69,1% or 2711 ha. The perennial plantations covers 434 ha of land surface or 11,1% and presented by 391 ha of fruit-trees orchards, 37 ha of vineyards and 6 ha of other perennial plantations. The pastures allocated at the 779 ha or at the 19,9%% of the agricultural area. The indices of agriculture land availability in the limits of commune indicate that 1,2 ha per person, including 0,83 ha of arable lands and 0,13 ha of perennial plantations, is generally available for the agriculture activities.

In the year 2001 the principal land owners in the commune was two agro-processing companies with the limited responsibility, named “SRL Valea Plopilor”, aggregated 1346 ha of farmers lands and “SRL Rodennticid”, which managed 639 ha of lands. In total the area of 1985 ha of lands (65,2%) is proceeded at the collective mode. Individual farmers, not aggregated at any formal collectives, have 845 ha of lands (or 27,7%). The gardens are managed individually or collectively at the area of 200 ha. Sixteen ha of lands has been transferred from the reserve land of Primaria to the villagers as a land compensation.

Hydrological network The Lapusnita main stream is crossing the territory of commune between two villages. The Lapusnita river is forming a wide floodplain before discharge to the Prut. From the left side and upstream from the village Sarata -Razesi the Lapusnita river has received water coming by a tributary forming at the territory of commune Minjir and regulated by the cascades of small water reservoirs at the territory of commune Tomai. The Lapusnita floodplain is drained by a number of channels crossing the river valley.

The total area of surface water in the borders of commune, as indicated in the state land cadastre, is 154 ha from which 31 ha is a lake.

Irrigation and drainage The information is not available yet.

Livestock The total number of livestock in the year 1999 has been reported to the statistical office as 532 cattle, 1623 pigs, 2709 sheep, 72 horses. All livestock is managed at private individual manners at the territory of the rural settlements, except the sheep which have summer field stalls outside the residential zone.

In the Soviet time in village Sarata-Razesi one very small pig farm has been organized at the north …. of the village at the first terrace of the Prut and Lapusnita rivers. The more important livestock collective farms was build at the bank of Lapusnita to the south direction from the village. The cattle and pou ltry farms were constructed at the place where Lapusnita has junctions with the last tributary. In village Tochile-Raducani the farm was built at the eastern part of the settlement and actually the facilities is completely destroyed.

Natural resources

Machinery/Equipment The structure of machinery and agricultural equipment is not available at the moment of report preparation, but the total number of agro-processing machines are 43 tractors, 28 lorries, 5 combines, 16 plugs, 15 cultivators, 8 planting machines.

Infrastructure

Waste water treatment plant (WWTP) was build in village Tochile -Raducani at the top of the hill in order to treat wastewater after the school. Currently the facilities are completely out of use, physically degraded.

The roads in the limits of commune covers 176 ha and the principal roadway is connected the commune with the village Tomai and town Leovo. There are several number of gravel or un-paved field roads are available. The area under construction is covers 138 ha, including village buildings and households (87 ha) and streets (51 ha).

There are number of public social facilities has been build in both villages as: 2 bath- houses and 2 cultural centers and 3 libraries.

The electricity, telephone and mail service is generall y available in the commune.

Market There is biggest market place for the commune;s farmers is situated in village Carpineni and in town Leovo. The important market for the villagers are the market options available in the towns Hincesti and Chisinau also.

4.9 Polluting sources

The overall / broad objective of the project is to reduce nutrient pollution from agriculture sources in Moldova to the Danube River and Black Sea.

Nutrient management in the catchment may be used to identify suitable measures to reduce the impact of nutrients on the surface and groundwater.

Generally speaking there is an excess of nutrients in catchments populated by humans. The principle of the nutrient management planning is to ensure that plant nutrients are available in the required concentrations, in the right place at the right time (usually in the soil for agricultural purposes) and are prevented from entering sensitive parts of the ecosystem at elevated concentrations (usually surface waters).

The management of nutrients with the aim to reduce their impact on the surface and groundwater implies at least the following steps: · Identify sources of nutrients; · Determine nutrient pathways; · Quantify nutrient fluxes; · Identify suitable measures to reduce nutrient inputs and transport; · Monitor the effectiveness of measures against expected effects.

The following presents a tentative estimation of the main sources, flows and emissions of nitrogen and phosphorus in the project pilot area.

Sources and pathways of nutrients

The nutrients arise from point and non-point sources within the catchment. Point sources include discharges from specific identifiable locations (e.g. WWTP and industrial discharges) and non-point sources include all other sources such as runoff from agricultural land.

Point sources The main point sources are human populations served by a WWTP (sewered population) and industrial discharges. Most of the villages in the pilot area used to have small capacity waste water treatment facilities which were designed to serve primarily the communal buildings within the settlements (administration, schools, etc). Currently, all of them but one are in disrepair or are completely destroyed. The only WWTP that is said to be in use belongs to the penitenciary in Rusca, serving apparently 50-100 people. Thus, more than 99% from the 43,000 population of the Lapusna basin is non-sewered.

Industry in the pilot area is almost entirely associated with the agricultural sector, mainly food processing, juices and canned foods, wine production, fruit and vegetable processing, grain storage/milling. The existing industry is largely non operational. Fall-off in production output and yields in the agricultural sector, leading to production instability, has also led to a reduction in industrial activity. It is expected that the reduction in vineyards and orchards will further impact significantly on the level of activity of existing industrial plants in the coming years. In general, the level of industrial activity in the region is extremely low and consequently the nutrient load from the industry is relatively insignificant.

Concerning the livestock industry, the old collective farms that housed a large number of animals have all but two (both in Minjir) ceased to operate. Presently only a limited number of cattle and pigs are kept in there.

Non-point (diffuse) sources The principal non-point sources are from land use, livestock waste, non-sewered population, and background loads.

During the last decade, Moldova’s agricultural sector has undergone significant structural changes. Former collective farms have been reorganised into smaller farmer associations and private farms (in the Lapusna area, for example, a large amount of land is held in over 13,000 plots of 1-1.5 hectares each). The large cattle, pig and poultry farms have been mostly dismantled or their herd has been drastically reduced. Now most of the rural householders keep the animals onto their household plots. Animals are an important part of their household capital. During the warm period of the year they are grazing on public pastures nearby the villages. About half of the pasture areas are situated in the Lapusna river floodplain. The pastures are quite limited, have a low productivity and therefore are largely over-exploited.

The mentioned changes in agriculture obviously have serious environmental implications, particularly on nutrient fluxes. Some of them are mentioned below.

The shift of the livestock from big farms to the private households made the pollution from animal waste more diffuse and consequently less manageable. The amount of human and animal waste produced by rural households is very large and much of this is disposed within the tiny plots of the households themselves or on adjacent farmlands. This puts an enormous pressure on a very small area of the rural environment. Most villagers dispose of manure and the other wastes from animals into sites usually situated within the village. Besides, manure from previous activities is known to be stored at abandoned livestock farms in some of the villages (e.g. Tochile-Raducani). These pose a pollution risk.

Practically all the population living in the Lapusna catchment is not connected to sewerage networks. Human waste is deposited in pit latrines. These are simple holes in the ground with no cement or other base to facilitate cleaning. In terms of nutrient fluxes, the changes that occured in agriculture during the last years have probably slightly decreased the nutrient load to surface waters and increased it to the groundwater. The extent of such a re-orientation of nutrient fluxes is difficult to estimate at present.

An other potential source of nutrients is the disposal of domestic waste in landfills. Domestic refuse from human settlements including biodegradable organic waste is disposed of in official and unofficial landfills close to settlements. These landfills are generally not lined and leachate infiltrates into groundwater or may in certain circumstances drain directly to surface water. The present atmosphere of confusion and lack of authority in the villages contributed to the growth of unofficial landfills. During the last years, the villagers increasingly dump on those sites the waste from domestic animals.

Nutrients in soils have the potential to be transported to surface waters by surface transport following rainfall events and to groundwater by infiltration. The frequency, intensity and spatial distribution of rainfal events are important drivers for the delivery of the nutrient load to surface waters in particular. Soil permeability and gradient also influence the delivery of the nutrient load to the surface waters.

The poor economic situation of the land owners has lead to a dramatic decrease of application of mineral fertilizer (mainly due to sharp increase in its cost) and manure (due to unaffordable costs for transportation from household to the field, lack of composting facilities and ignorance of the owners). This may have decreased the runoff of nutrients to the surface waters as well as their percolation to the groundwater during the last years. On the other hand, in the 1990s the chaos in Moldovan agriculture that leaded to spreading of unsustainable crop and soil management practices, illegal cutting of forests and protecting buffer strips, over- grazing, has exacerbated the soil erosion. The landscape, nature of the soils, patterns of rainfall and historical land use has resulted in high erosion risk for many areas in Moldova. 90% of agricultural land is situated on slopes and large amounts of tops oil are regularly washed out during heavy rains carrying out significant quantities of nitrogen and phosphorus. A significant part of the eroded material is transported to the river systems. Recent measurements in the sediments of impoundments in one of the Prut tributaries7 showed very similar levels to that in the soils suggesting that soil erosion is the primary mechanism of transport of soil nutrients to the water bodies. The most part of these nutrients are tightly bound to the soil particles. These particles accumulate in the reservoirs along the river and contribute to the internal loading of nutrients to the system over the long-term.

Wet and dry deposition from the atmosphere contains nitrogen and phosphorus and contributions from this non-point source are accounted for in background losses from the catchment. Natural weathering of soils and rocks also contributes to the background losses of nutrients from the catchment.

Another important point that has to be mentioned is the strong link between surface and groundwater. Traditionally evaluation of water resources has focused on surface water or groundwater as if they were separate entities. Yet, the nature of the soils and hydrogeology of the pilot area results in significant interaction between shallow water bearing rocks and the river. The groundwater contribute to river baseflow at times throughout the year. Since results from monitoring of shallow wells in the catchment89 suggest that concentrations of nitrate can reach values as high as 500-800 mg/l then contributions of nitrate from groundwater to surface waters could provide an additional pathway of nutrients to surface waters. Contaminated aquifers that discharge to rivers can result in long–term contamination of surface water since the pollution of the shallow aquifer with nitrate is reversible over a period of one or two decades providing that preventive measures are taken.

Nutrient fluxes to surface waters and groundwater in the Lapusna river basin

Summary of nutrient load methodology

(A methodology developed by the Water Research Centre, UK, for the Umbria region, Italy, was used, however adapted to the Moldovan conditions. The approach and information gathered within the EU project Nutrient Balances for Danube Countries was also applied to a certain extent).

7 Prut Basin Water Management Project. Tacis, 2000. 8 Study on the Quality of Rural Drinking Water. The World Bank, 1997. 9 Prut Basin Water Management Project. Tacis, 2000 The global estimates of loads are centred on the commune level as the smallest unit of discrimination. First, the estimation of potential annual loads was performed through the application of loading factors to data on human population size, livestock numbers, arable farming patterns and atmospheric/background loads. Then, through the application of export coefficients and multiplication factors to potential loads the effective annual loads were estimated.

Population load

The potential load from the population is calculated by multiplying the total population number by the following per capita loading factors:

4 3.3 kgN/capita/year (9.0 g/day) 5 0.9 kgP/capita/year (2.4 g/day)

The loading/emission factors for nitrogen and phosphorus were calculated basing on the physiological excretion rates and the dietary patterns of the population (taken from official statistics). For phosphorus the average consumption of P-containing detergents was additionally considered.

Estimation of effective loads There is no population in the Lapusna pilot area connected to the sewerage. The villagers discharge their waste water into pit latrines dug in the ground. These pits are never insulated and their content mostly percolates into the groundwater. Howeve r, we assume that a certain amount is transported directly to surface waters with the runoff or in some other way. For soils with high permeability, as Moldovan soils are, the following export coefficients are applied to calculate the N,P -load from soil to groundwater and to the surface waters:

4 Export coefficient to groundwater: 80% for N, 70% for P; 5 Export coefficient to surface waters: 10% for N, 15% for P.

Livestock loads

Potential load In each commune and for each parameter, the number of each lives tock type is multiplied by the loading factors presented in the table below to generate the potential load from each type. These are then summed to provide a total potential load from livestock.

Type of livestock Potential N load Potentia l P load (kgN/head/year) (kgP/head/year) Cattle 60 9 Horses 58 9 Pigs 15 4.5 Sheep 7 2.8 Poultry 0.5 0.2

Effective loads to surface waters It is assumed that a fixed proportion of the potential livestock load used on the agricultural area is exported to the surface waters. The following standard export coefficients used are:

4 17% of the potential N -load 5 3% of the potential P-load

In each commune the results obtained are further multiplied by the following coefficients to adjust for soil permeability, land slope and rainfall level.

Mean annual Multiplication Mean land Multiplication Soil Multiplication rainfall factor gradient factor permeability factor range < 800 mm 0.8 < 0.2’ 0.8 High 0.8 800 – 1200 1.0 0.2 – 1.4’ 1.0 Moderate 1.0 mm > 1200 mm 1.25 1.4 – 8’ 1.25 Low 1.25

Effective loads to groundwater The following standard export coefficients are used to assess the nutrient export from livestock waste (used on agricultural land) to groundwater:

4 26% of the potential N -load 5 0.1% of the potential P-load

The above are then multiplied by the following coefficients to adjust for rainfall level and soil permeability.

Rainfall range Multiplication factor Soil permeability range Multiplication factor

Low 0.6 Low 0.8 Moderate 1.0 Moderate 1.0 High 1.5 High 1.35

Export coefficients will be chosen for each commune on the basis of land vulnerability and applied to the potential loads from livestock and the application of fertilizers within each commune to generate effective loads to surface waters and groundwater. Unfortunately no consideration is possible for the derivation of export coefficients to nutrients built-up in the soil due to loading history.

Loads from farming

The potential nutrient loads arise from fertilizer application rate.

The estimation of farming effective loads to surface waters can be done by using the following standard export coefficients:

4 20% of the inorganic nitrogen fertilizer applied to all crops 5 3% of the inorganic phosphorus fertilizer applied to all crops

The above are then multiplied by the following factors to adjust for soil permeability, land slope and rainfall level.

Mean annual Multiplication Mean land Multiplication Soil Multiplication rainfall factor gradient factor permeability factor range < 800 mm 0.8 < 0.2’ 0.8 High 0.8 800 – 1200 1.0 0.2 – 1.4’ 1.0 Moderate 1.0 mm > 1200 mm 1.25 1.4 – 8’ 1.25 Low 1.25

The standard coefficients for nutrient export from fertilizer application to groundwater are as follows:

4 26% of the nitrogen fertilizer applied to all crops 5 0.1% of the phosphorus fertilizer applied to all crops

The above are then multiplied by the following factors to adjust for rainfall level and soil permeability.

Rainfall range Multiplication factor Soil permeability range Multiplication factor

Low 0.6 Low 0.8 Moderate 1.0 Moderate 1.0 High 1.5 High 1.35

Atmospheric/background nutrient loads

The atmospheric loads are incorporated into the derivation of the background export coefficients for surface waters.

The following effective nutrient atmospheric/background export coefficients are used:

4 4.5 kgN/ha/year and 0.2 kgP/ha/year for rural land; 5 8 kgN/ha/year and 0.4 kgP/ha/year for urban land.

For export to surface waters, these values are then multiplied by the following coefficients:

Mean annual Multiplication Mean land Multiplication Soil Multiplication ra infall factor gradient factor permeability factor range < 800 mm 0.8 < 0.2’ 0.8 High 0.8 800 – 1200 1.0 0.2 – 1.4’ 1.0 Moderate 1.0 mm > 1200 mm 1.25 1.4 – 8’ 1.25 Low 1.25

It is assumed that no proportion of atmospheric/background nutrient loads is exported to groundwater.

Results

Population load

Commune Populatio Potential load, kg/year Effective loads, kg/year n To groundwater To surface waters N P N P N P Pascani 4993 16477 4494 13182 3146 1648 674 Lapusna 6880 22704 6192 18163 4334 2270 929 Sofia 3630 11979 3267 9583 2287 1198 490 Negrea 2301 7590 2071 6075 1450 759 311 Carpineni 12678 41840 11410 33470 7987 4184 1712 Minjir 6048 19960 5443 15967 3810 1996 816 Voinescu 3461 11420 3115 9137 2180 1142 467 Tochile-R 3247 10720 2922 8572 2046 1072 438 Total 43238 142690 38914 114148 27240 14269 5837

Livestock load

Potential N-load (kgN/year) Commune Cattle Horses Pigs Sheep Poultry Heads Load heads load heads Load heads load heads Load Pascani 1031 61860 351 20358 1198 17970 1142 7994 18000 9000 Lapusna 598 35880 133 7714 1200 18000 1570 10990 24000 12000 Sofia 745 44700 237 13746 710 10650 1050 7350 14150 7075 Negrea 408 24480 92 5336 439 6585 475 3325 6800 3400 Carpineni 865 51900 183 10614 2376 35640 3863 27041 19800 9900 Minjir 625 37500 104 6032 2054 30810 2616 18312 13650 6825 Voinescu 423 25380 66 3828 402 6030 1109 7763 7600 3800 Tochile-R 552 33120 104 6032 890 13350 2705 18935 11000 5500 Total 5247 268110 1270 73660 9269 13903 14530 10171 115000 57500 5 0 Grand total: 640 tN/year.

Potential P-load (kgP/year) Commune Cattle Horses Pigs Sheep Poultry Heads Load heads load heads Load heads load heads Load Pascani 1031 9279 351 3159 1198 5391 1142 3198 18000 3600 Lapusna 598 5382 133 1197 1200 5400 1570 4396 24000 4800 Sofia 745 6705 237 2133 710 3195 1050 2940 14150 2830 Negrea 408 3672 92 828 439 1975 475 1330 6800 1360 Carpineni 865 7785 183 1647 2376 10692 3863 10816 19800 3960 Minjir 625 5625 104 936 2054 9243 2616 7325 13650 2730 Voinescu 423 3807 66 594 402 1809 1109 3105 7600 1520 Tochile-R 552 4968 104 936 890 4005 2705 7574 11000 2200 Total 5247 47223 1270 11430 9269 41710 14530 40684 11500 23000 0 Grand total: 164 tP/year

The effectiv e nitrogen loads from livestock to the surface waters and the groundwater from the entire Lapusna basin are as follows: to the surface waters: 640 tN x 0.17 x 0.8 x 1.25 x 0.8 = 87 tN; to the groundwater: 640 tN x 0.26 x 0.6 x 1.35 = 135 tN.

The effective phosphorus loads from livestock to the surface waters and the groundwater from the entire Lapusna basin are as follows: to the surface waters: 164 tP x 0.03 x 0.8 x 1.25 x 0.8 = 3.94 tP; to the groundwater: 164 tP x 0.001 x 0.6 x 1.35 = 0.133 tP.

It must be stated that this is a very rough estimate and these numbers will have to be further adjusted to reflect the present practices of manure handling within the pilot area. The estimate is based on the assumption that all animal waste is applied to la nd as organic fertilizer. However, the real picture is more complicated. As stated above, almost all animals and poultry are housed within the private households. During the vegetation period, however, the livestock is grazing on the communal pastures. Only pigs are kept in stables all the time while cattle and horses spend on average about 3 months per year and sheep about 7 months per year on the pastures. Most of the pastures are in the river floodplain. From the domestic birds, geese are also spending lots of time in this area. This means that the nutrient load associated with the livestock is splitting up: part of the animal waste (25% at average) is released on pastures while approximately 75% is produced within the household yards. The animal excreta are stored for some time in the yards and nutrients partly percolate into the groundwater just like from non-sewered population. Part of the manure produced on the territory of households – especially that from cattle and horse - is used for fertilization of the private plots. During storage a significant amount of nitrogen (esp. ammonia) is released to the atmosphere as gaseous losses. Excreta from pigs and sheep are usually collected and dumped on the landfills, in the ravines or other sites, very often within the settlements. During handling and transportation part of the waste is spread over the road and other places. All described ways of manure handling have an impact on the nutrient pathways to groundwater and surface waters (generally, they would increase the share of the nutrient flow to the surface water).

Loads from farming

The potential nutrient loads arise from fertilizer application rate. Some 253.1 tons of mineral fertilizer were reportedly used in the Lapusna catchment in 2001. According to the information from local authorities these mainly consisted of ammonium saltpetre used on wheat. The nitrogen content in this fertilizer is 35%, so the amount of N applied to the land was: 253.1 x 0.35 = 88.6 tN.

The estimation of farming effective loa ds to the surface waters and groundwater from mineral fertilizer application was done by using the mentioned above standard export coefficients:

88.6 tN x 0.20 x 0.8 x 1.25 x 0.8 = 14.2 tN (to the surface waters); 88.6 tN x 0.26 x 0.6 x 1.35 = 18.7 tN (to the groundwater);

According to the same information source no phosphorous fertilizers were used in the area since the mid 1990s.

Atmospheric/background nutrient loads

The atmospheric loads are incorporated into the derivation of the background export coefficients for surface waters.

The nutrient atmospheric/background export coefficients mentioned above were used:

4 4.5 kgN/ha/year and 0.2 kgP/ha/year for rural land (here agriculture land, forests and ‘other lands’ i.e. landslides and ravines were considered); 5 8 kgN/ha/year and 0.4 kgP/ha/year for urban land (here the lands under settlements and roads were considered).

For export to surface waters, these values are then multiplied by coefficients to adjust for precipitation rate, land slope and soil permeability.

The loads calculated this way are as follows:

For rural land: 45934 ha x 4.5 kgN/ha/year x 0.8 x 1.25 x 0.8 = 165 tN/year; 45934 ha x 0.2 kgP/ha/year x 0.8 x 1.25 x 0.8 = 7.34 tP/year. For urban land: 3003 ha x 8 kgN/ha/year x 0.8 x 1.25 x 0.8 = 19.2 tN/year; 3003 ha x 0.4 kgP/ha/year x 0.8 x 1.25 x 0.8 = 0.96 tP/year.

Total atmospheric/background nutrient load to the surface water: 184 tN + 8.3 tP.

It is assumed that no proportion of atmospheric/background nutrient loads is exported to groundwater.

The way atmospheric/background nutrient load was assessed according to the methodology developed by WRC does not provide a clear understanding of the procedure and the origin of the export coefficients used. In order to check the validity of this assessment the evaluation was done once more using another starting point. Basically, the background load for rural land is made up by the N,P -fluxes associated with eroded soil particles. Moldova is naturally susceptible to water erosion and the pilot area does not make an exception from that. The landscape is hilly, most of the agricultural land is located on slopes. Although the annual precipitation rate is not high, the rainfalls may be very intensive washing out large quantities of fertile soil. The grain size composition of the soils is also favorable to washing soil particles away.

On the other side, crops are grown without compliance to proper relief and soil type consideration in terms of soil conservation. The excessive transformation of hilly pastures and meadows into annual cropland, without any attention paid to relief, physical or biological monitoring must also be mentioned. By cultivating slopes intensively, the humus layer is washed off and only sand and clay layers are left as topsoil on the slope.

The loss of soils is closely related to the loss of nutrients. Soil nutrients as closely bound to the soil particles. They are washed into the draining river network of a watershed, causing water pollution problems. In general, it is very difficult to estimate the soil loss through a certain “average” value. In principle, a heavy rain can wash away from a given site in a few hours more fertile soil than it could have been lost during the previous decade. There were reported cases in Moldova when 100-200 tons of soil was washed out per hectare within a couple of days.

Some assumptions from a previous study10 have been used to estimate the transport of nutrients to the surface waters with eroded soil. These assumptions are as follows: · 18 tons of soil per year are washed away from a hectare of arable land; · 12 t/ha from orchards and vineyards; · 2 t/ha from grassland/pasture; · 15% of the eroded topsoil ends up in the water reservoirs within Lapusna basin; · The nutrient content in the soil is 0. 2% total N and 0.1% total P.

These data allow for a rough estimate of the nutrient load to the surface waters. The soil losses are: from arable land 21363 ha x 18 t/ha = 384,534 t; from orchards and vineyards 6961 ha x 12 t/ha = 83,532 t; from grassland/pastures 5698 ha x 2 t/ha = 11,396 t; total 479,462 tons; the amount going to water reservoirs 71,919 tons;

Thus the nutrient load from erosion to the surface waters is 144 tN + 72 tP. The numbers are not very far from what was estimated using the WRc methodology for nitrogen (comparing to the assumptions made) but differ significantly for phosphorus.

The background load from built up (‘urban’) areas was also estimated using data on the area under settlements and roads (approximately 3000 ha), the precipitation rate (500 mm/year from which half was assumed to run off to the surface waters) and the quality of the runoff from urban areas (2-3 mg/l total N and 0.2- 0.4 mg/l total P). The loads are thus estimated at 15-22 tN and 1.5-3 tP per year that is very close to the estimate according to WRC methodology.

Nutrient load to the surface waters and groundwater for the Lapusna catchment (t/year)

10 Nutrient Balances for Danube Countries. Country Report Moldova. Volume 1. 1996. Source Surface waters Groundwater N P N P

Population 14.3 5.84 114 27.2

Livestock 87.0 3.94 135 0.133

Farming 14.2 - 18.7 - Background (erosion) 165 7.34 - - Background (settlements) 19.2 0.96 - -

Total 300 18.1 268 27.3

The annual nutrient budget suggests that Lapusna catchment is dominated by nutrient fluxes induced by agriculture. The main source of nutrients to surface waters is from background contribution (mostly erosion) and livestock waste. Contributions from farmland fertilization and non-sewered population make up the remainder of the nutrient load. The input of bioavailable forms of nutrients to the Lapusna river during the growing season is likely to be important with respect to eutrophication effects in the river and the impoundments.

The major contribution of nutrients to the groundwater is from non-sewered population and from livestock waste. This poses a big health risk due to contamination of shallow groundwater with nitrate and bacteria.

The nutrient budgets and the identified detrimental effects indicate that the measures to reduce nutrient inputs should be addressed towards reducing phosphorus inputs to the Lapusna river from the catchment and to reducing nitrogen inputs to groundwater from the non-sewered population and from livestock waste. ------

· Clarification of relationships between GW and SW is one of the key issues for prioritization of nutrient pollution prevention measures. The effectiveness and efficiency of activities for decreasing the total nutrient load to the Prut both depend on the pathways of nutrient flows.

4.10 Options

The mitigation options applicable to solving the nutrient problem, are already well known and have been tested in many countries, in various natural, economical and social conditions and at various scale (households, community, river basin).

The options can be grouped as: technical (physical) options and non-technical (regulatory) options, which usually are not standing alone but support the implementation of technical ones. Both of them can be concentrated (1) to the point nutrient sources or (2) to the non-point (diffuse) sources or (3) to their combination. At the same time they can focus on (1) livestock and manure management or (2) fertilization of lands or erosion control.

The selection of options depends on a number of conditions and circumstances: (1) targets expected to be achieve, (2) social acceptance, (3) financial and economic capabilities and (4) willingness to implement. The progression of these aspects is interesting in that the focus is on easily measurable state of the water body, followed by a determination of the extent to which this status is a product of nutrient loads, then the degree to which loads may be manipulated to achieve the desired target that is determined by water use.

For the point sources of nutrient pollution the principal available options are: · Treatment of wastewater in order to reduce nutrients in the discharge water. · Use of wastewater and sludge (the alternatives are incineration and land fill) in order to achive marginal benefits as potential fertilizers with careful control of any possible negative elements of re-utilisation practices. · Modification of water use behavior in order to reduce nutrients in raw wastewater (eg. at source)

For the pollution sources relevant to the livestock management the main directions of mitigation measures are: · Construction of manure storage facilities of different scale in order to compost the residuals and further use as a soil fertilization matter. Water quality protection can be accomplis hed at most composting facilities by proper attention to siting, ingredient mixtures, and compost pile management as well as avoiding of potential problems with BOD, phenols (as by-products) in leakage and run-off waters and pathogens through careful facility design and operation. · Barnyard runoff management focusing on the preventing of surface water pollution. · Manure utilization as organic fertilizer on agricultural lands and in areas less sensitive to nutrient pollution.

At the regions where free access to streams and streambanks by livestock is commonplace and direct deposition of waste into streams, destruction of riparian vegetation, and trampling of streambanks and streambeds are associated with livestock grazing and such activities may represent important sources of sediment, nutrients, and bacteria to surface waters following measures are widely applied:

· Riparian zone fencing by temporary or permanent fences with variable width and creation of livestock watering facilities far away from the river or lake · Streambank bioengineering or creation of vegetation buffers by bushrolls, tree reventments and planting;

At the farm level the options available for prevention of nutrient pollution from the agricultural land management is mainly concentrated to:

1. Selection of crop types required more fertilization (if the manure collection exceeding soil fertilization requirements) or less fertilization (in order to minimise leaching of nutrients from the soil). Both measures should be accompanied with the soil investigation to not apply a surplus of fertilisers. 2. Selection of land cultivation techniques minimising the soil erosion and runoff. 3. Using of appropriated techniques and comply to the adequate time -schedule for fertilizers (mineral and organic) application.

At the places where erosion is a critical factor of nutrient pollution the options can be in focus of erosion control but it should be mentioned that there are no unique solutions existing. Control measures depend very much on the economic situation of the farmer, the degree of importance placed on sediment erosion by environmental authorities, availability of the state for development of the country. The FAO provides a set of options available, which are elucidated in the table below.

CONSERVATION Establish and maintain perennial vegetative cover to protect soil and - COVER water resources on land retired from agricultural production. CONSERVATION A sequence of crops designed to provide adequate organic residue for CROPPING maintenance of soil tilth. This practice reduces erosion by increasing organic matter. It may also disrupt disease, insect and -weed reproduction cycles thereby reducing the need for pesticides. This may include grasses and legumes planted in rotation. CONSERVATION Also known as reduced tillage, this is a planting system that maintains at TILLAGE least 30% of the soil surface covered by residue after planting. Erosion is reduced by providing soil cover. Runoff is reduced and infiltration into groundwater is increased. No-till, common in North America, is a conservation tillage practice. CONTOUR Ploughing, planting, and other management practices that are carried out FARMING along land contours, thereby reducing erosion and runoff. COVER AND A crop of close-growing grasses, legumes, or small grain grown GREEN MANURE primarily for seasonal protection and soil improvement. Usually it is CROP grown for 1 year or less. CRITICAL AREA Planting vegetation, such as trees, shrubs, vines, grasses or legumes, on PLANTING highly erodable or eroding areas. CROP RESIDUE Using plant residues to protect cultivated fields during critical erosion USE periods. DELAYED Any cropping system in which all crop residue is maintained on the soil SEEDBED surface until shortly before the succeeding crop is planted. This reduces PREPARATION the period that the soil is susceptible to erosion. DIVERSIONS Channels constructed across the slope with a supporting ridge on the lower side. By controlling downslope runoff, erosion is reduced and infiltration into the groundwater is enhanced. FIELD BORDERS A strip of perennial herbaceous vegetation along the edge of fields. This AND FILTER slows runoff and traps coarser sediment. This is not generally effective, STRIPS however, for fine sediment and associated pollutants. GRASSED A natural or constructed channel that is vegetated and is graded and WATERWAYS shaped so as to inhibit channel erosion. The vegetation will also serve to trap sediment that is washed in from adjacent fields. SEDIMENT Basins constructed to collect and store sediment during runoff events. BASINS Also known as detention ponds. Sediment is deposited from runoff during impoundment in the sediment basin. STRIP CROPPING Growing crops in a systematic arrangement of strips or bands across the general slope (not on the contour) to reduce water erosion. Crops are arranged to that a strip of grass or close -growing crop is alternated with a clean-tilled crop or fallow. TERRACING Terraces are constructed earthen embankments that retard runoff and reduce erosion by breaking the slope into numerous flat surfaces separated by slopes that are protected with permanent vegetation or which are constructed from stone, etc. Terracing is carried out on very steep slopes, and on long gentle slopes where terraces are very broad.

Cost factors and rankings will vary greatly, especially in parts of the world where labour costs are less and where the economic benefit is factored into the ranking system.

Among other technological measures following set of options is recommended by the FAO and can be mentioned as regulatory ones for the solving the mineral fertilisers pollution problems. · Taxes on mineral fertilizer. · Requirement for fertilizer plans. · Preventing the leaching of nutrients after the growing season by increasing the area under autumn/winter green cover, and by sowing crops with elevated nitrogen · Promoting and subsidizing better application methods, developing new, environmentally sound fertilizers, and promoting soil testing. · Severely limiting the use of fertilizers in e.g. water extraction areas and nature protection areas. · Rational nitrogen application: To avoid over-fertilization, the rate of nitrogen fertilizer to be applied needs to be calculated on the basis of the "crop nitrogen balance". This takes into account plant needs and amount of N in the soil. · Vegetation cover: As far as possible, keep the soil covered with vegetation. This inhibits build-up of soluble nitrogen by absorbing mineralized nitrogen and preventing leaching during periods of rain. · Manage the period between crops: Organic debris produced by harvesting is easily mineralized into leachable N. Steps to reduce leachable N includes planting of "green manure" crops, and delaying ploughing of straw, roots and leaves into the soil. · Rational irrigation: Poor irrigation has one of the worst impacts on water quality, whereas precision irrigation is one of the least polluting practices as well as reducing net cost of supplied water. · Optimize other cultivation techniques: Highest yields with minimum water quality impacts require optimization of practices such as weed, pest and disease control, liming, balanced mineral fertilizers including trace elements, etc. · Agricultural Planning: Implement erosion control techniques (see Chapter 2) that compleme nt topographic and soil conditions.

The scenarious and strategy for combating the pollution originated by organic fertilizers can be in focus of following management system prescribed by the FAO: · Maximum numbers of animals per hectare based on amount of manure that can be safely applied per hectare of land. · Maximum quantities of manure that can be applied on the land is fixed, based on the N and P content of the manure. · Holdings wishing to keep more than a given number of animals must obtain a license. · The periods during which it is allowed to apply manure to the land have been limited, and it is obligatory to work it into the ground immediately afterwards. · Establishment of regulations on minimum capacity for manure storage facilities. · Establish fertilizer plans. · Levies (taxes) on surplus manure. · Areas under autumn/winter green cover were extended, and green fallowing is being promoted. · Maximum amounts established for spreading of sewage sludge on land based on heavy metal content. · Change in composition of feed to reduce amount of nutrients (and heavy metals). · Research and implementation of means of reducing ammonia loss.

It should be mentioned also that economic control of manure management and fertilization pattern would become more strengthening factor as provided additional benefits to the farmers if they follow the correct advisory and consultation services.