page_title: Agriculture in Moldova
section_title: History of Agriculture in Moldova
hierarchical_section_title: Agriculture in Moldova / History of Agriculture in Moldova
caption_attribution_description: In Hîncești district, 1980
context_page_description: Moldova is an agrarian-industrial state, with agricultural land occupying 2,499,000 hectares in a total area of 3,384,600 hectares. It is estimated that 1,810,500 of these hectares are arable. Moldova is located in Eastern Europe, and is landlocked, bordering Romania and Ukraine. Moldova’s agricultural sector benefits from a geographical proximity to large markets, namely the European Union. As a share of GDP, agriculture has declined from 56% in 1995 to 13.8% in 2013. Data from 2015 estimated that agriculture accounted for 12% of Moldova’s GDP. Agriculture as a sector is export-oriented, with the composition of Moldova’s total exports containing agriculture and the agri-food sector as a main component. 70% of agri-food exports in 2012 included beverages, edible fruits and nuts, oilseeds, vegetable preparations and cereals. Here, fruits, vegetables and nuts were attributed to 33% of Moldova’s exports for 2011-2013. The declining share of agriculture in GDP does not extend to national value-added, where the agricultural sector in Moldova has the largest share relative to Central and Eastern European countries, withstanding a low productivity.
context_section_description: As of 1995, agricultural production delivered an estimated 40% of total production in Moldova, employing an estimated 1/3 of the total labour force. Between 1987-1990, Moldova’s trade basket featured agricultural and food products as more than 50% of total exports. The composition of the sector in 1989-1990 involved the crop sector accounting for 60% of agricultural output’s value, and the livestock sector contributing to 40%. Agricultural land for this period was 2.3 million hectares, of which arable land was 1.5 million hectares. Historically, agricultural output has accounted for a larger percentage of GDP, where between 1995-1997 it accounted for 27.39%, in comparison to 9.03% for 2007-2009. In the period 1989-1993, total agricultural output was estimated to have declined by 33% for Moldova. The decline in agriculture transpired within the livestock sector, with a fall in meat production by 40% between 1991-1993. Moldova as a former member of the Soviet Union historically had access to a sizeable market, as in 1972, where Moldova's livestock exports accounted for 1% of cattle and 2% of pigs in the USSR.
caption: Hîncești district, Moldova in 1980
exif: {}