Extension Agent Helps Feed
The Hunger For Knowledge In Moldova
GAIL STROCK
Mifflin Co. Correspondent
LEWISTOWN (Mifflin Co.)
Take a group of people under
communist rule for 80 years,
give them freedom and democ
racy, and what do you get? A
group of highly motivated
people who are fiercely proud of
their country and the progress
they’ve made, but extremely
lacking in even the simplest
free-enterprise concepts.
That’s what Andrew Martin,
Penn State Farm Management
extension agent based in Mifflin
County, found in April when he
visited the Republic of Moldova,
a former USSR republic that
gained independence in 1991.
Andrew visited Moldova as an
agribusiness volunteer for the
Citizens Network for Foreign
Affairs. The program, funded by
the U.S. Agency for Interna
tiona] Development, strives to
“improve the lives of small-scale
and private farmers and agribu
siness entrepreneurs in the
former Soviet Union and south
ern Africa.”
Moldova compares in size to
Maryland, borders Romania on
one side and the Ukraine on the
other three, and contains some
of the richest soils in the world
chernozem or black soil. The
climate resembles the climate in
Illinois, and its people look to
the United States for knowledge
and leadership.
“When the communists left,
everyone became a farmer,”
Andrew explains. “The United
States helped privatize the land,
to come up with the deed pro
cess and criteria for dividing the
collective farms into five-acre
increments. The United States
recommended nondisputable
survey points produced by GPS
or Global Positioning System.”
The country now consists of
families trying to survive on five
acres each while dealing with a
corrupt and bankrupt govern
ment. “This is the first genera
tion after communism. They’ve
never had to market products.
Under communism, they were
followers you produced your
product, grapes, in, this case.
Now they’re required to grow,
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Families throughout communities in Moldova share resources, such as tractors. With
little available money, car parts are often retrofitted for use as garden tools, such as
hoes. Farm Management specialist Andrew Martin, center, taught Moldovians market
ing concepts for the ag products they produce.
bottle, label, and sell, and
they’ve never had an example of
how to do that. I can teach mar
keting, and they can repeat it
back to me because the commu
nist schooling required obedi
ence and discipline, but they
can’t apply it. They’re very inef
ficient too. In fact, a word for ef
ficiency doesn’t exist in their
Romanian-based language.”
Andrew introduced some
marketing concepts to the class
that he taught at the Moldova
Agricultural College. He spent
the previous week in Chistnau
developing a lesson plan, “The
World Bank lent money to the
country to set up local banks.
The banks started small, with
only $5,000 to lend to local
farmers for seed and short-term
labor during harvesting. The
bank’s board members are local
people. I taught a one-week
class in a small village of
Mereseni to board members on
how to approve a loan, what a
banker should look for, when
and if a member can borrow,
and how to figure cash flow. The
loans average $l5O with four
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Each family takes its turn shepherding the cows on
common land along highways and around ponds. The cows
are fed corn stalks in winter.
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months to pay. The average
family’s net worth in Moldova is
$5,000, including the house,
land, cow, and chicken.”
Andrew applied to become a
volunteer for many reasons.
“There’s a moral obligation to
help. It’s in America’s best inter
est to help for trading and world
stability, and they are intelligent
people a mind is a terrible
thing to waste. It was a perfect
match my skills with what
the program personnel were
looking for. I was drawn to the
farmer-to-farmer approach. I’ve
been on two mission trips prior
to working for extension. I’ve
always felt a need to help coun
tries economically. It’s hard for
a person to listen to anything
else when they’re hungry.”
Andrew found the people in
Moldova hungry for more than
just food. “The people were
friendly, hospitable, lean, but
healthy because they walk ev
erywhere. Our meals consisted
of cucumbers, spiced sausage,
olives and sardines. If the family
had money, homemade cow
cheese, bread made on Saturday
for the whole week, and pitchers
of wine because the water isn’t
drinkable. They have no consist
ently available source of heat
and no fertilizer for their crops.
They take turns grazing their
cows on common ground near a
pond or along the road. They
feed their cows straw. When
they harvest the corn, the ker
nels feed the chickens, the corn
stock becomes fuel for heat, and
the com leaves become handy in
the outhouse.
“Most of the people don’t
want to live like Americans.
They see us as very wasteful.
They simple want the basics
enough money to put gas in a
car for a day trip once a month
or to buy a gift when someone
gets married, but they can’t. The
trip has given Andrew new per
spective. He said, “I feel blessed
to pay taxes now. We get some
thing for our money roads,
schools. They don’t. They pay
taxes and get nothing.”
Moldova continues to face the
challenge of growing economi
cally and finding good leader
ship for its country. When in
Mereseni, the mayor told
Andrew, “If the majority of
people are farmers, and if they
can’t manage individual farms,
how can they manage their
country?”
“Emerging economies start
with agriculture,” Andrew con
cludes. “That’s why I went to
Moldova.”