Platform for change

Moldova-based project encourages manure composting to improve crop yields and reduce nutrient pollution in neighbouring waterways

By Nathan Johnson

The Living Water Exchange (LWE) is a Global Environment Fund (GEF)/United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project, initiated in 2009, to promote nutrient reduction best practices in Central and Eastern Europe. 'Decreasing Water Pollution Sources in the Prut River Basin through the Promotion and Implementation of Best Agricultural Practices' is one of four demonstration pilot projects that were completed in 2010. According to the LWE project report, published in October 2010, "the [Moldova-based] project focused on demonstration and outreach activities regarding composting and the use of composted manure as a nutrient source for 'ecological agricultural production.'"

After submitting a successful project application, the Ecological Counseling Centre Cahul (ECCC) received a grant for project implementation from the Global Environment & Technology Foundation (GETF). The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) and REC Moldova acted as GETF project partners, while REC Moldova carried out monitoring efforts for two of the four pilot projects: Moldova and Ukraine.

Project area background

The Prut River originates in Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains and flows for 953 kilometres before joining with the Danube on the latter's course towards the Black Sea. For 695 kilometres the river forms the boundary between Romania and Moldova. The total area of the river's hydrographic basin is 27,500 square kilometres, nearly 8,000 of which occupy a region of Moldova dedicated almost entirely to agriculture.

The specific project area was the Lower Prut Lakes region in south-western Moldova, a designated Ramsar site since June 2000. An area spreading over 19,152 hectares, the site lies between the administrative capital city of Cahul and the village of Giurgiulesti. The site contains Lake Beleu and Manta, Moldova's two largest natural lakes, and supports smaller water bodies, marshes and minor tributaries of the Prut River floodplain. Other wetland habitats include fishponds, riverine forest and grazing meadows. Historically, the area marked one of the frontiers of the Roman Empire, and traces of Emperor Trajan's Wall (earthen fortifications called valla), dating back to 1000 A.D., can still be seen at various heritage sites.

The Ramsar Site Database at wetlands.org lists the following principal environmental threats to the Lower Prut (Prutul de Jos) site: illegal wood and tree cutting, illegal fishing, poaching, illegal solid waste dumps, pollution of surface runoff water and groundwater, soil degradation (erosion, salinisation, etc.), siltation, unregulated grazing, water extraction and alien species.

At present, local government owns most of the Ramsar Site land. Existing laws prevent approximately 80 percent of the land from being privatised. Ponds in the area produce fish for local consumption, while a large part of the area floodplain, especially in the north, has been drained to provide farmland, mainly for cereals, vineyards and vegetables. The irrigation system for the area as a whole is only about 40 percent operational. Agriculture accounts for an estimated 98 percent of employment in the project area.

Project aims and accomplishments

The centrepiece of the Moldova project was the construction of a 100m² composting platform with a manure capacity of 300m³, though numerous outreach activities were carried out in the project area to help raise ecological awareness.

ECCC Director Artur Nebunu detailed project accomplishments in Uzhgorod, Ukraine during a peer-to-peer exchange presentation on October 26, 2010. One facet of the project was to educate youth and farmers about best agricultural practices; 105 local farmers and 177 students received direct training to this effect through the project. Again, with a special focus on youth and farmers, ECC, with assistance from REC Moldova, distributed a wealth of environmental and agricultural information materials throughout the project area, holding five village meetings and five educational sessions in schools and colleges. The materials focused on the importance of the lower Prut River wetland complex and excessive nutrient loads (i.e. eutrophication) in the Prut and Danube rivers and the Black Sea. Also, the village council organised a 'train the trainers' session to instruct geography teachers on ecological issues.

Nebunu explained how farmers, local government representatives and Cahul District volunteers received training in best agricultural practices, stressing the need to reduce the amount of nutrients entering local waterways and to inform participants about the project work to be carried out in the town of Slobozia Mare, where the composting platform was constructed. The compost collected at the platform during the project period was applied over a 200m² plot serving as a vegetable garden at the Slobozia Mare kindergarten, a practice that has proved both productive and educational. The garden yields an abundance of produce, including tomato, cucumber, beets, carrot, cabbage, onion, parsley, beans, squash, courgette and aubergine. Not only is the garden practice ongoing; it is also being modelled elsewhere in Moldova.

Composting: Best practices and lessons learned

Location and monitoring

"One of the main problems of Moldova's rural areas is pollution from organic waste," says Victor Cotruta from REC Moldova. "When REC Moldova announced a call for project proposals with the aim of reducing pollution from agricultural activities, we received five and ended up selecting the one submitted by ECCC."  The authors of the winning proposal believed that composting facilities, as part of a larger ecological agriculture programme, could play an important role both directly and indirectly in reducing agricultural impacts on water quality.

Acting on fairly short notice and with few available options, the composting platform was built near the town waste tip, a location that brought mixed results. While the site proved convenient for farmers and meant that equipment was readily available to turn the manure deposited at the platform, the compost was often mixed with solid and household wastes that were not separated prior to dumping. Signs were painted on the platform walls, but the warning often went unheeded.

To this end, the Slobozia Mare Mayoralty appointed a person responsible for monitoring the platform. Also, platform access was limited to daylight hours, and there were set hours for making manure deposits. This provides the person responsible for the platform with the time necessary to perform occasional spot checks of the material being deposited.

Content and maintenance

Aside from keeping solid waste out of the manure mixture, it is critical to maintain appropriate and uniform moisture content to create high-quality compost: "about 50 percent by weight during composting, with the material allowed to dry once composting is complete," according to the LWE project report. "Sustained temperatures of less than 40º Celsius indicate a stable material. The 'rule of thumb' to estimate 50 percent moisture is the point at which you can almost get a drop of water out of the material when it is squeezed by a gloved hand." It is therefore vital to have access to water to maintain this ratio of moisture in the composting material.

While there was continuous input to the Slobozia Mare platform, the material was not turned on a regular basis. Turning is important in order to maintain proper mosture and temperature, andshould accor at least on a biweekly basis. It is also hoped that, with experience, siteoperators will learn how to prevent manure from being added to already partially composted material. Also, temperature should be monitored frequently, whether daily or weekly. One-metre-long measuring thermometers are available for little cost and are critical to this process.

Following up on suggestions and recommendations received during an on-site visit and peer-to-peer exchange in Moldova, platform management improved, and all necessary measures were taken to turn the deposited material regularly, and to maintain appropriate and uniform moisture levels.

Evaluating compost use

The compost project, according to the LWE project report, had a two-fold purpose: "to improve manure storage and management to reduce water quality impacts, and to provide a quality organic nutrient source and soil conditioner." Implementing best practices and learning proper techniques while using the right kind of materials not only achieves these two aims, but can also bring long-term economic benefits. The best efforts, however, will not bring the desired long-term results if there is failure to communicate valuable information to those who are expected to put new ideas into practice.

The ECCC project organisers conceded that the compost garden at the Slobozia Mare kindergarten could have been used more effectively as a demonstration site for farmers. Where there was a control area in the compost-free portion of the garden, no concrete measurements were taken to compare growth, yield and quality from composted and non-composted areas. Demonstrations that clearly show the benefits of one practice over another can be highly effective in creating genuine enthusiasm among farmer, or at least win over those who are sceptical. Someone should be placed in charge of gathering the kind of information that makes for compelling demonstration; and this information should be published for wider distribution as well.

Information about positive practices and results achieved from the kindergarten project was published in the Slobozia Mare local newspaper. Inspired by the news, some farmers have built small platforms for manure deposits to be used on their own farmlands.

As a result of the ECCC-led awareness-raising activities and meetings with mayors and district councillors, a project was initiated with financial support from the National Environmental Fund for building a smiliar composting platform. Two villages in the Lower Prut region will benefit from this platform: Crihane Veche and Manta. The platform will have a capacity of 2,700 tonnes.

Issues further afield

The demonstration platform provided enough compost to cover just between 1/30th and 1/60th of Slobozia Mare's roughly 6,000 hectares of agricultural land, based on calculations of just two cycles per year. In order to provde compost for the entire farmed area, two issues need to be addressed. First, what is the availability of materials suitable for composting? Second, how is it possible to radically increase composting capacity? Related to the second question: Might it be possible through better management to increase platform efficiency, and perhaps to double or triple the number of batches per year? It was generally agreet by project participants that increased efficiency and optimal platform location would helpt to make most, if not all, agricultural production in the area more sustainble ecologically.

As in many countries of the former Soviet Union, masses of land farmed collectively in the past were broken up into privately owned parcels of much smaler size. Moldova is no exception, though those near the capital city of Chisinau (Kishinev) are are a great deal larger than those in other parts of the country. In the Chisinau District, an estimated 253 farms cover an estimated 30,000 hectares of land, for average farm size of 188 hectares. On the other hand, in Slobozia Mare, some 2,000 farming households work 6,000 hectares, for an average farm size of just 3 hectares; this brings significant disadvantages. Farms this small are unable to provide much more than subsistence, and individual farms/farmers usually have limited means to purchase the equipment and machinery needed to grow high-quality crops. It also means that there can be as many different farming techniques and pratices as there are farmers, and this is usually to the detriment of the soil and, by extension, surrounding ecosystems. The formation of cooperatives would help to: organise crop production in suitable quantities for taking to market, allow farmers to pool resources and equipment to raise growing standards, and harmonise agricultural practices in a mroe environmentally friendly way.

The compost project in Moldova's Cahul District is one small but important step towards promoting and implementing new farm-management practices that will help to reduce agricultural nutrient pollution in both local and downstream waters.