Republic of Moldova

Area equipped for irrigation was 312 000 ha in 1994 [MD01] but declined later to 302 100 ha in 2000 and 280 800 ha in 2002 [MD02]. In this study the value 307 000 ha is used as area equipped for irrigation. The figure refers to 1999 [MD03].The irrigated area is visible in the table below and also can be downloaded as Republic of Moldova irrigation areas in PDF or Republic of Moldova irrigation areas in Excel. The irrigation schemes of the country were digitized from an irrigation map [MD04] and the area equipped for irrigation was equally distributed over the digitized polygons.

Large parts of the irrigation infrastructure are abandoned or out of use. AAI in years 1993-1995 was 49 percent - 67 percent of the AEI [MD05] and the reported agricultural water use (AWU) in year 1992 was 775 Million m3 [MD01]. In contrast, AWU in year 2008 was only 37 Million m3 [MD06]. Therefore we estimated that the AAI in year 2008 was only about 20 000 ha. It was reported that, because of the low quality of available groundwater resources, all irrigation is from surface water [MD05].

References

[MD01]: FAO. 2012. AQUASTAT country profile of the Republic of Moldova, version 1997. FAO, Rome, Italy.
[MD02]: National Bureau of Statistics. 2005. Agriculture (1995 – 2004 years). http://www.statistica.md/, 30/08/2005.
[MD03]: FAO. 2011. FAOSTAT. http://faostat.fao.org/, 13/02/2006.
[MD04]: Catrinescu, V., Calasnic, A. & Melian, R. 1999. Irrigation in Moldova. In: European Regional Working Group (ERWG) of the ICID. EWRG letter 7, 1-4.
[MD05]: FAO. 1997. Moldova – Irrigation rehabilitation project. Annex 2: irrigation engineering. FAO, Rome, Italy.
[MD06]: National Bureau of Statistics, 2008. Statistical yearbook of the Republic of Moldova. Edition 2008. National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, http://www.statistica.md/pageview.php?l=en&idc=263&id=2193, 24/08/2009.