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http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/25/europe/EU-GEN-Moldova-Red-Cross-Drought-Victims.php
Red Cross hand out food aid to Moldovans affected by drought
TATARASTI, Moldova: Moldovans affected by a massive drought last year have started receiving food aid from the Red Cross, the organization’s country director said. Food parcels containing wheat flour, maize flour, canned foods and vegetable oil were passed out Thursday in Tatarasti, a village of 2,000 people about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of the capital, Chisinau, Vasile Cernenchi said. The three-week Red Cross aid campaign will help 6,700 people in total, he said. Beyond that, Moldovan Red Cross officials said they would try and raise funds to continue food aid. “We will be helping the poorest of the poor,” Cernenchi said.
During last year’s drought, which lasted more than three months, Moldova saw only 10 percent of its normal rainfall.
The drought affected 80 percent of the country’s arable land, devastating the cereal, vegetable and fruit crops. The grape harvest was also hurt.
About 60 percent of the country’s 4.2 million population lives in rural areas, and for many people agriculture is their main or only source of income. Cernenchi estimated about 200,000 Moldovans were affected by the drought.
The government has given some financial aid to rural residents as well as seeds so they can plant crops.
“Those that have more land and are able to work their land manage to survive, but the drought cut into everyone’s incomes,” Tatarasti official Alexandra Belcescu said.
Usually, monthly incomes in rural areas average 1,000 lei (US$95; €61) — less than half the national average.
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Posted in drought, food / food security
