Partnering with Private Sector, USAID Flood Relief Saves Harvest for Many
Romanian Farmers
One year ago, in April 2005, severe flooding hit the western part of Romania. USAID mounted an immediate campaign to assist those most affected and support relief efforts. Farmers in Arad and Timis counties, where USAID’s Romania Agribusiness Development Program (RADP) operates, were particularly hard hit. Due to the severity of the flooding and its timing at the end of the planting season, there was a real risk that many farmers would have no crop to harvest.
Working with Pioneer and Monsanto, two U.S. seed companies resident in Romania, USAID quickly launched a program to distribute early-maturing hybrid corn seed to the farmers. Nearly 3,000 farming households across the two counties were able to replant over 4,000 hectares because of USAID’s rapid response.
The village of Conop in Arad County typifies the impact of the flood across the region. Three-quarters of its farmland was flooded after most crops had been planted. Although the replacement seed arrived in mid-May, the fields were not dry enough to plant until the end of that month. Local farmers knew that planting so late in the season with the seeds they normally use would mean a low yield at best.
Dorina Balan, a long-time Conop family farmer expressed her neighbors’ sentiments best. “When the seeds came,” Mrs. Balan said, “I had very little faith they would work. I did not see any difference between our seeds and those given by USAID. So, how could they be better? I was totally surprised, as were my neighbors that we could plant so late and still harvest at the normal time. We planted more than two months late and still got 10 tons per hectare – better than our old corn.”
Arad Agriculture Department official Livius Buta summed up farmers’ opinions about the effectiveness of USAID’s seed replacement initiative, “Virtually every farmer I have visited was extremely pleased with the crops, the quality and the yield. Most farmers produced enough corn to feed their family and farm animals for the entire year, when they had given up all hope for any income at all.”
In addition to the goodwill generated by their flood relief effort, Monsanto and Pioneer have reported a heightened interest in their varieties – well in advance of the normal period for selling seed.
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| Mrs. Balan (in red shirt) inspects the crop before harvest |
A full corn crib meant enough animal feed to last the winter |
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