On October 13, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Eugen Osmochescu and Giuseppe Grimaldi, Head of the EBRD Office in Moldova, signed an agreement regarding the sustainable water supply project for irrigation. The loan will be disbursed in two tranches. Of the total amount of up to 49.8 million euros, funds are planned to be allocated for the rehabilitation of the "Puhăcenii de Sus" and "Masivul Căușeni" centralized irrigation systems, including the modernization of water intake, pumping, and distribution infrastructure. The work will cover systems in the Căușeni, Anenii Noi, and Ștefan Vodă districts and provide access to irrigation for approximately 6,900 hectares of farmland. The direct beneficiaries of the assistance will be about 300 local farmers who participated in developing the project concept and are required to contribute 3% of the total investment cost. An additional 53.1 million euros in EBRD financing will be used to modernize other priority systems, the list of which will be determined by the government. The project also includes an EU grant of up to 4.8 million euros, to be allocated through the Neighborhood Investment Platform, and a contribution of 7.2 million euros under the EU Growth Plan for Moldova. Part of the support will be directed toward capacity building for the National Land Reclamation Agency, water user associations, and agricultural producers. According to estimates by the Ministry of Agriculture, the modernization will save approximately 13 million cubic meters of water annually and triple the annual volume of agricultural production in the areas covered by the project. Minister of Agriculture Eugen Osmochescu noted that this is the first initiative of its kind in Moldova's history in the field of irrigation and expressed hope that it will eventually be expanded to other centralized systems. Giuseppe Grimaldi, in turn, noted that the ultimate goal of the project and the funding is to strengthen rural communities, expand opportunities for farmers and businesses in the agri-food sector, and, overall, to advance Moldova's development on the path to EU accession. // 13.10.2026 — InfoMarket.