Agriculture has traditionally been a major component of the Moldovan economy, especially during the transition to independence. However, the impact of this transition and the associated breakdown of collective and state farms had a negative consequence for growth in the agricultural sector. This has meant that the share of the agricultural sector in GDP has declined from 33% to 11% between 1995 and 2009, and now trails GDP contributions from the service, industrial and manufacturing sectors.
However, when the agricultural sector is combined with the agro-processing sector, the importance
of agriculture to the Moldovan economy becomes more fully illustrated, with the combined sectors accounting for approximately 30% of GDP, 60% of exports and 50% of industrial output.
Furthermore, the agricultural sector provided 41.4% of total employment from 2003-2005.
These figures highlight the inherent vulnerability of the national economy to climate related events that impact the agricultural sector. This level of vulnerability is further compounded at a livelihoods scale, as 90.8% of the rural population earns less than $5 per day and is highly vulnerable to any changes in agricultural income.
The value of agricultural production in the national economy for 2008 was US$ 1.5 billion.
Plant production contributed
67.6% to the overall value, while animal production and animal services contributed 30.3% and 2.1%, respectively. Between 2005-08 the overall value of agricultural production increased by 29.3% with both the plant production and animal production sectors growing significantly by 31.3% and 29.1%, respectively
