The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) has selected Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences to host a distinguished group of eight Moldovan agricultural professionals through the USDA Cochran Fellowship Program.
In collaboration between the Office of International Programs in Agriculture and Ohio State South Centers, the group will be hosted for two weeks in May 2017 to gain a better understanding of high –value horticultural production, storage, and marketing practices in the U.S. The delegation will comprise of two directors of private produce companies, one district manager from the National Food Safety Agency, two private agricultural managers, one horticultural researcher from the Institute for Scientific-Practical Horticulture and Food Technologies, and two agricultural specialists from the FAS posts in Eastern Europe.
The goal of this visit is to assist Moldova in increasing livelihoods of smallholder farmers through improved high-value horticultural crop production, which is expected to lead to enhanced international trade and food security in Moldova.