SOIL PROTECTION ASPECTS OF LAND REFORM

V.V.Cerbari,
Head of the Pedology Department, Scientific Research Institute of Pedology (Soil Science), Agricultural
Chemistry and Hydrology

The soil is our most important natural resource, Moldova's principal national wealth. Our well being depends
directly on how well we exploit soil fertility. A report from the World Commission on Environment and
Development acknowledged that food safety, sustainable agriculture, the natural resources upon which
agriculture relies (soil, solar energy, water, air, light, genetic resources), and an environmental balance are
priorities for continuous development. A first priority is the need to maintain soil quality and productivity in
the long-term.

A prime objective is to ensure that Moldova's land management has as it’s goal rational soil use, so as to
create the necessary conditions for the general improvement of ecology, of the environment and the
protection of land rights.

1. The Structure of Moldova's Land Pool and

Development Patterns in the Context of Land Reform

Moldova's land pool amounts to 3,384.4 thousand hectares. The total area of agricultural land is 2,556.6
thousand hectares - 75.5% of the total land area, including 1,809.9 thousand hectares (53.5%) of arable-
land; 370.7 thousand hectares (10.9%) under perennial plantations; 376.0 thousand hectares (11.1%) of
pastures and hay fields.

The remaining area is made up of 3.7 thousand hectares (0.1%) of land being reclaimed; 422.9 thousand
hectares (12.5%) of woods and forests; 18.0 thousand hectares (0.6%) of marshland; 75.5 thousand
hectares (2.2%) under water; 83.7 thousand hectares (2.5%) under roads and motorways; 149.9 thousand
hectares (4.4%) under residential areas; 74.1 thousand hectares (2.2%) of waste land including 8.8
thousand hectares (0.3%) of ravines, and 24.1 thousand hectares (0.7%) of land slides.

The percentage of land used for intensive farming (arable and perennial plantations) is exceptionally high -
64.4% of the total land, or 85.3% of agricultural land, which makes it more difficult to maintain a natural
ecological balance, which has resulted in the degradation of soil and biological diversity.

Land reform is nearing completion in Moldova, being implemented by USAID within the framework of the
“Pamint” Program, supported by АRА and local authorities. The national land pool will be privatised into
more than 2 million land parcels.

Prior to the “Pamint” Program land was distributed without any preliminary anti-erosion-measures in respect
of communal territories, often on hillsides, which resulted in increased erosion. About 200 thousand hectares
of land were allocated in this manner. As land reform progressed, layout planning schemes for privatised
land began within the “Pamint” Program, but they took inadequate soil erosion-prevention measures,
specifically:

 No measures to protect soil structure on communal territories through the creation of systems of forest
strips and plantings on degraded land;
 No drainage canals were provided for in layout plans for the quick removal of rain-water;
 Land has been fragmented into tiny plots (each beneficiary being allocated equal value land shares as
three or four different types), further complicating preventative measures for soil protection and the
formation of specialised and profitable farms.

Land reform has modified dramatically the structure of land ownership and use, introducing the necessity to
buy land, increasing the numbers involved in land relations, resulting in a diversity of land ownership and
production. But these changes, along with other land reorganisations, have not created the necessary
environment for the improvement of soil fertility, the rational use of land, or increased agricultural
productivity.

Adverse shifts can be traced in agricultural land use in the reform years, 1989 to 1999. The total area of
agricultural land decreased by 7.5 thousand hectares (due to degradation), the area of land under perennial
plantations decreased by 93.7 thousand hectares (due to the grubbing of orchards and vineyards). At the
same time, the area of arable land increased by 65.1 thousand hectares, and the area of pastures by 36.1
thousand hectares. Irrigation systems are non-functional on more than 200 thousand hectares of formerly
irrigated land. The cultivation of small plots in a situation of economic crisis makes it impossible for farmers
to take the necessary soil protection measures. To prevent further soil degradation, including the famous

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Moldovan black soils, it is desirable to develop and implement a wide range of legal, economic and
amelioration actions to protect Moldovan agricultural land.

It is needed, as a first priority, to develop and implement political and economic mechanisms to improve the
nutrient cycle in farming. The introduction of a new market based pricing policy should become a pre-
condition for any fundamental reforms within the sphere of agricultural production and soil protection. The
present unfavourable state of affairs, as regards rational land use and protection, has resulted in the
following:

 A distorted balance of trade between agricultural and industrial products, inflation, a reduction in the use
of equipment, fertilisers etc.;
 Confrontation between different owners and farming forms and attempts '"from the top" to impose
certain production schemes;
 The transition from large-scale to small-scale production, without considering input availability or
requirements of small-scale production;
 Weak state support of agriculture, as regards the sale of products, supply of inputs etc.

The principal objective of the reform currently underway (to reorganise land relations) has been achieved
quite successfully, although it is not being accompanied by any social or environmental measures. The
problems of sustained productivity growth and soil quality are not being considered to a satisfactory degree.
The reason is the dynamic of the agricultural reform process with multiple ownership and farming forms but
without the preliminary theoretical or practical consideration of operational models - There is no link to the
ecological situation or to environmental conditions.

Land re-allocation is not always accompanied with the creation of the necessary conditions for efficient
farming, for co-operation based on the principle of joint activity. Land allocation based on 3 to 4 different
types of land located in different places makes it practically impossible to form specialised production farms
or to develop uniform soil protection systems. No recommendations have been developed on the optimum
areas of land required by various specialised farms located in different soil and climatic zones. Labour and
inputs are insufficiently applied to leased land and no measures are taken to improve soil fertility.

In order to maintain individual (peasant) farms in the future and to create the necessary environment for soil
protection and use, it is necessary to consolidate land to create farms of an optimum size through the land
market, mortgage, lease, co-operation, etc. Furthermore, there should be beneficial contractual co-operation
between farms with state or co-operative producers, processing companies, wholesale and retail networks
and private companies providing production-related services, seeds, etc.

State support is necessary to complete land reform for all the ownership forms. For that purpose, the state
and its land surveying authorities have to introduce and continuously improve respective legal, economic
and land surveying mechanisms regulating land use. It is only then that the profitability of agricultural
producers will reach the level sufficient to ensure production, soil fertility, rational use of natural resources,
the improvement of the ecological situation and an environmental balance on agricultural land.

2. Soil Quality and Soil Degradation Dynamics

The principal condition required to prevent agricultural land degradation is the maintenance of the rooting
soil layer.

Land reforms in Moldova have caused the intensification of soil degradation of certain types and at the
same time the easing of other types of degradation. The dramatic decline in the use of fertilisers and pest
killers has practically stopped soil pollution and created the necessary preconditions for environmentally
friendly ('clean') farming and the production of 'clean' foodstuffs. The land reforms, however, have not
stopped soil degradation altogether. The following soil degradation processes still go on: soil erosion, the
excess compaction of arable soil, salinisation, alkalisation and swamping of low lands, expansion of water-
logged land, the decrease in organic matter and nutrients in soil, degradation of pasture land. We are facing
the situation where the solution of social problems has to be coupled with actions to preserve the biosphere
and, specifically, soil as its principal component.

The principal types of soil degradation prevailing on Moldovan agricultural land (2,556.6 thousand hectares),
including land affected by various types of degradation and the extent of the resulting damage is illustrated
in the following table.

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 Soil Degradation on Agricultural Land in Moldova*
(Total Area of 2,556.6 thousand hectares)
No. Soil Degradation Area in Damage, in USD thousands
hectares Annual Total, due to Soil
Destruction
1. Water (rain) erosion 839.7 221,365 -
2. Land slides 81.0 - -
3. Soil destruction by land slides 24.1 8,423 1,014,923
4. Soil destruction by ravines 8.8 7,622 370,594
5. Soil destruction due to earth-work 5.0 - 210,565
6. Removal of the fertile soil layer by artificial 5.0 67 -
terrace construction
7. Soil deep ploughing 546.4 - -
8. Decrease in the productive capacity of deeply 175.7 3,198 -
ploughed soil
9. Land use on low organic matter silt 119.0 2,166 -
10 Excessive soil compaction due to intensive land 2183.0 39,730
use
11. Initial soil compaction (slitting) 60.0 2,184
12. Excess ground water on low lying areas 49.6 902 -
13. Excess ground water in alluvial meadow soil 259.0 4,714 -
14. Salinisation and alkalisation of soil in low lying 20.0 3,640 -
areas
15. Salinisation and alkalisation of alluvial meadow 99.0 5,405 -
soil
16. Alkalisation of soil 25.0 1,820 -
17. Organic matter loss, low (<3.0%) and very low 1037.0 18,873 -
(<2.0%) organic matter content
18. Soils deficient in phosphorus 785.0 28,574 -
19. Soil degradation due to irrigation 12.8 699 -
20. Draughts and other natural calamities 256.0 23,296 -
21. Allocation of agricultural land for public needs 120.0 - -
22. Complete soil destruction on the land allocated 40.9 63,801 1,722,422
for public needs
TOTAL - 436,479 3,318,504
*Information source 1: Data published in the soil monitoring bulletins in 1993-1996 and in the centralized Cadastral
registers, also data from the State Scientific Center of Agrochemical Services.

The total direct and indirect annual damage caused by soil degradation and droughts in Moldova is
estimated at $436,479,000; including $79,846,000 that account for the value of soil completely destroyed by
land slides, ravines and earthworks, and $356,633,000 that account for losses in crop yields.

Soil erosion is the principal soil degradation cause in Moldova. The total land area affected by erosion
amounts to 840 thousand hectares, (33% of the total agricultural land), including land affected to a medium
extent (247 thousand hectares, or 9.7%), and strongly affected land (102.5 thousand hectares, or 4.0%). The
annual fertile soil loss caused by erosion amounts to 26 million tons. That is equivalent to` the destruction of
2000 hectares of land with full profile black soil that has the bonito (the fertility rate) of 100 points. Indirect
losses expressed as losses in agricultural production amount to 525 thousand tons of conventional nutritive
units for arable land and 57 thousand tons of fruit and grapes for land under perennial plantations. Soil
erosion leads to the general aggravation of ecology in Moldova: water basins and bottomlands become

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Note: When calculating topsoil depletion the following data has been used:
- the normative price per 1 hectare of land for change of use out of agricultural use for soil with the bonito rate equal
to 100 points is 926496 MDL or $84266 (the exchange rate is $1=11MDL);
- the initial bonito rate (before the topsoil degradation) is 50 points;
- the price of 1 hectare of degraded land with initial bonity of 50 points is 463248 MDL or $42113;
- the value of one year’s crop from 1 hectare of arable land is 2000MDL or $182;
- the cost of production from 1 hectare of pasture land is 500MDL or $45;
- the average soil productivity reduction, percentage rate caused by degradation; deep ploughing of land and use of
this land for field crops - 10%; improving land using silt deposits - 10%; primary soil compaction - 20%; secondary
soil compaction - 10%; removing the fertile layer on artificial terraces used for pasture - 30%; water-logging -
10%; salinisation of sloping lands - 100%; salinisation of alluvial soil - 30%; other types of salinisation - 40%; low
and very low level of humus deposits - 10%; week and very week phosphorus levels - 20%; soil degradation
resulting from irrigation - 30%; droughts and other natural calamities on 10% of the total agricultural land - 50%.

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silted and polluted; access roads and motorways, irrigation installations and constructions become
damaged.

Excess soil compaction is wide spread over all cultivated land due to soil organic matter losses and the
destruction of soil structure by agricultural machinery. This compaction leads to yield losses of 10-50%,
caused by the decreased efficiency of fertilisers, increased levels of harmful pests, diseases and weeds, an
increased risk of soil salinisation and alkalisation, soil erosion and the development of other unfavourable
processes.

Excessively high water tables and the development of swamping, salinisation and alkalisation is wide
spread in the flood plains of the Prut River, smaller rivers and low lying land. Governmental Resolution No.
131 of 15.02.2000 "On the Urgent Actions to Improve the Social and Economic Situation in the Villages
Located on the Flood Plains of the Prut River" serves as evidence of the intensification of the above
processes in the post-privatisation years, manifesting themselves through yield losses of 20 to 100%.

Organic matter losses in the soil are a global process, and the adverse environmental impact is hard to
forecast. Organic matter losses have significantly accelerated in recent years due to the lack of any animal
manure’s being applied to the soil. The current organic matter balance in soil is highly negative - 1.5 ton per
hectare.

The use of mineral fertilisers has decreased 10-20 times which together with poor farming practices and
crop rotations has led to deficiencies in soil borne plant nutrients causing yield decreases of 20-30%. The
ecological situation has deteriorated on pasturelands in the last few years due to overgrazing which has
resulted in some cases to complete soil degradation. Furthermore, the high concentrations of livestock in
rural residential areas has also aggravated the environmental and sanitary situation in villages - soil and
groundwater pollution from liquid manure.

Landslides are causing major economic and environmental damage to Moldova's land economy in general.
The total area of the land destroyed by landslides amounts to 8,423Ha and increases annually by an
average of 500-1000 hectares.

To tackle these problems it is necessary to develop and implement a national program concerning the
rational use and maintenance of agricultural land to prevent soil degradation during land reform and in the
post-privatisation years.

3. Principal Actions Intended to Prevent Soil Degradation and Environmental Aggravation in

Agriculture

Most measures already taken were intended to prevent soil degradation in order to deal with symptoms
rather than causes. It has meanwhile become clear that such a narrow approach is insufficient to solve the
problem. It is possible to tackle these problems by giving equal prominence to the underlying social,
economic and political issues as well as the scientific issues of physical, chemical and biologic soil
degradation. Efficient economic reform is impossible without a dramatic reorganisation of land relations.
Ownership of land is the basis of land relations. Economic mechanisms should be directed to exercise the
rights of landowners and land users, increasing land use efficiency and environmental and economic
protection through a scientifically robust program of agricultural reforms.

Major emphasis should be given toward the use of political and economic mechanisms, which would
promote the successful completion of agrarian reforms, the growth of agricultural production and the
elimination of the principal causes of poverty. It is poverty that causes people living on degraded areas to
over exploit the soil in order to survive. Strategic priorities are a national economy able to ensure soil
fertility and living standards that ensure social, economic and political stability through environmentally
friendly production. The following would be required to perfect and successfully implement agrarian reform:

 To create specialised and efficient model farms of an optimum size located on Moldova's different soil
types and in different climatic zones;
 To determine the optimum size of differently specialised farms, taking into account the soils and the
economic situation in specific areas;
 To create the conditions for co-operation between family farms on the basis of joint farming activities;
 To create a land market and the necessary environment for the mortgaging and leasing of land; to solve
the issue of rent definition, calculation, collection and use; land price, rent and tax including the tax on
land transactions; a procedure for the accumulation and use of monies received from land payments;
clarification of the form and extent of governmental control over land transactions; a procedure for the
conclusion of land agreements;

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 To create efficient economic mechanisms that would ensure equitable pricing, loan and taxation policies
so as to make it possible to implement the needed programs in agribusiness, and in particular on soil
protection, amelioration and use;
 To provide government support for the implementation of land reform for all land ownership and farming
types;
 To ensure governed land control and management with the objective of rational use and protection; to
create the necessary conditions to improve the environment and protect land rights.

The principal issue in land management is to distinguish between land law and civil law subjects. The
separate existence of civil law and land law is based on differing regulatory principles. Civil law is based
upon the freedom of action of the owner, including wilful damage to his property. Land law does not
acknowledge a similar freedom in this respect regarding real estate as a natural resource and territory at the
same time.

A precondition for soil rational use, amelioration and protection in Moldova is the observance of sustainable
farming practices, including:

 Erosion-prevention measures - organisational, technical, phyto-amelioration and hydro-technical actions

to prevent soil erosion;
 Preservation of existing landscapes by the adaptation of practices accommodating its specific features;
 Landscape structuring and restoration; expansion of wooded areas and meadows to support the
environmental balance of ecosystems and to preserve biological diversity;
 Introduction of crop rotations so that the balance of tilled crops, ear-forming crops, perennial grasses
and vegetables assists the preservation of soil fertility, weed, disease and pest control and growth in
crop productivity;
 Use of organic fertilisers from various sources (crushed plant rests, manure, green fertilisers
intermediate crops, animal wastes and household waste after treatment, composts);
 Use of chemical fertilisers in moderation, solely to complement other measures;
 Use of minimum soil cultivation systems that ensure the integrity of soil structure and the sustainability
of farming systems;
 Use of integrated plant protection methods intended to decrease the use of pesticides, natural pest
predators, genetically resistant varieties and hybrids and other measures to control pests and weeds;
 The use of natural resources (solar and terrestrial energy; phosphorus-fixing bacteria naturally present
in soil; disease and drought-resistant varieties and hybrids; water efficient irrigation systems and a
decrease in the volume of purchased resources (fertilisers, pesticides);
 The integration of arable, livestock, horticultural and viticultural sectors with an objective to create an
integrated and sustainable farming system with higher biological diversity, where internal resources are
used more efficiently, metabolism is more complete, production costs are lower, labour is put to better
use;
 Land use which ensures the necessary conditions for the improved efficiency of agriculture, the
conservation and renewal of soil and other resources and the harmonisation of natural and economic
factors which account for overall system stability.

The notion of "ecological territorial limits" should be made the cornerstone of a soil management strategy.
Natural self-regeneration becomes exhausted beyond certain limits. Compensation for damage and losses
caused by soil degradation should become an obligatory requirement for land users. To define the initial
state of soil on privatised land, the state should provide all landowners with an objective valuation document
– soil quality certificates – in addition to the land ownership titles, which have been already issued. These
cadastral documents are also needed to set the correct rates of land taxes payable, for land sale, lease and
mortgage transactions, for land inheritance, for measures intended to promote soil protection, rational use
and amelioration.

Soil protection should become the foundation of a National land monitoring system. This is necessary to
develop a framework for ecological standards (optimal levels for various soil types relating to each soil type,
region and farming system), to develop future and current land state forecasts and to make specific
recommendations to manage these processes.

The rational use and protection of soil on small privatised land plots supposes joint cultivation and land
protection measures taken by neighbouring groups of land users, at least within an existing field. This
necessity is related to the needs of soil protection and ecology. An important role in the rational use of
privatised land relates to the National land surveying authorities who, taking into account the reorganisation
of land relations, should perform the following:

 A large-scale and detailed soil survey and the development of an objective cadastral land quality
register;
 Adjusting general erosion-prevention schemes based on the new soil maps;
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 Land state assessment of pasture land;
 An inventory of degraded lands that have an adverse impact on the environment;
 A landscape-based development of farming systems and land development systems for agricultural
enterprises and peasant (family) farms;
 The development of preliminary degraded land re-cultivation projects, establishment of forest belts and
wooded areas, other erosion-prevention actions;
 The development of a comprehensive national program relating to rational land use and protection;
 Continuous monitoring.

The issue of the return of national land surveying authorities under the supervision of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Processing Industries should be put on the agenda.

In conclusion it should be emphasised that we should not rely solely on the restructuring of collective state
farms to joint stock companies, small co-operations or family farms, nor land use fragmentation as the
means to ensure the necessary agricultural growth needed to solve the soil degradation problem. A
comprehensive land management system is necessary for that purpose. Land management is the
development and implementation of a set of organisational, economic and administrative mechanisms that
form, regulate and develop long and short term land quality forecasts, developing specific recommendations
on the management of processes that may have adverse effects.

Land management must function on three interconnected levels: the national level, the provincial level and
the local (community) level, implementing, in a comprehensive way, a uniform national land policy, including
a soil protection policy to maintain an environmental balance.