Agricultural sector in Moldova has moderate capacity to adjust to climate change - FAO expert says

Chisinau, Dec. 30 / MOLDPRES /- Moldova lacks an effective mechanism for coordinating adaptation to climate change, and the necessary knowledge on the risks and vulnerabilities related to climate change is insufficient. These are the conclusions of a preliminary analysis by experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The expert assessment reflects the capacity of national and regional institutions responsible for agriculture to coordinate the process of adapting to climate change and highlights the gaps and constraints that act as barriers to the progress of adaptation planning and implementation in agriculture. The analysis was developed within the framework of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) project Integrating adaptation into planning processes to reduce vulnerabilities to climate change, at local and central level, in the agricultural sector of the Republic of Moldova (Ag-SAP).

The needs of eight capacity dimensions were identified in the evaluation: leadership and governance; the institutional and legal framework; the size of adaptation planning and implementation; the partnership between the relevant institutions and the private sector; monitoring and evaluation; climate information and risk assessment; climate change and the gender dimension and private sector mobilization.

"During the assessment, the leadership and governance dimension identified insufficient prioritization of climate change adaptation for several reasons, including political and administrative volatility. Likewise, the assessment also reveals the shortage of staff specialized in adapting to climate change, including in adapting state institutions. There has been evidence of overlap or ambiguity in the competencies of some national institutions, insufficient integration of climate change adaptation measures into sectoral development strategies and policies and their cross-sectoral harmonization, and limited financial resources for integrating the climate change adaptation process into agriculture. " said Anisorc Brito Ramirez, the expert who carried out the evaluation.

The results of the evaluation will be reflected in the Capacity Development Plan for the agricultural sector.

Photo: agrobiznes.md