Study tour for acquaintance with Dutch best practices in smart agriculture, Moldova (2023)

On behalf of HollandDoor, Jos Leeters organised a learning and inspiration study tour on smart agriculture in September 2023. A delegation of the Technical University of Moldova, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries, delegates from sector organisations and national consultants got acquainted with newest Dutch technologies in data-driven farming, precision agriculture, drones, GPS, AI and more. Furthermore they saw best practices of Centers of Excellence, mainly based on strong cooperation between knowledge institutions, the government and the private sector. Host organisations were Aeres University of Applied Sciences, Living Lab 'salination' and 'sweet water farming', Farm of the Future of Wageningen University & Research, HAS green academy, Agxeed, Jacob van den Borne potato farm, Fruit Tech Campus and RoboHouse @TU Delft. The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality gave full support.

The Republic of Moldova has been working on modernizing its agriculture for years. This study tour was part of the Rural Competitiveness and Resilience Activity (RCRA), implemented by Chemonics International and funded by USAID. The goal of this program is to stimulate a sustainable and inclusive recovery from the regional crisis brought on by the latest Russian invasion of Ukraine. Acceleration of an inclusive, climate-resilient economic development and stimulation of the competitiveness of key economic sectors, including the wine industry and high value agriculture, are priorities in the program.