It is really the only way they can make money. Money is needed to pay for electricity and coal or gas and other needs and wants. The cities are different. Most people live in high rise apartments and thus have no land to raise crops on, resulting in a more desperate situation. The system of buying food from farmers might actually work fine, but it is not steady and is very unorganized.
Some people manage to make enough money at their normal jobs to survive.
The city people get paid every once in a while, not enough to live on for most, but the villagers almost never get paid. It's proven it can't. Only when good people control the government can they be truly free. The people of Moldova are poverty stricken because they have put their faith in government instead of grasping freedom and the responsibility that goes with it to rule and control their own country. They survive on a barter system, selling goods in a bazaar or on the street, and raising their own food.