Farmer Ministry Enters New Phase in Moldova and Beyond | Farm and Rural Family Life

NEW PROVIDENCE, Pa. — Working with farmers in Moldova has some similarities to teaching farmers in the U.S.

Just ask Herb Graybill, who makes regular trips to the Eastern European country to help farmers improve their methods and boost financial self-sufficiency.

Some Moldovan farmers embrace changes that could help them produce crops, livestock and milk, while others resist the new ways.

Graybill is stepping into the role of executive director of AgConnect Ministries, a Christian nonprofit that combines agricultural education with sharing the gospel in countries where these needs are perceived.

“I love teaching people new things,” Graybill said.

He will have plenty of opportunities to do just that in his new role leading the ministry started by Les Yoder, a Lancaster County ag consultant who felt called to work with Moldovan farmers after visiting the impoverished former Soviet country in 2004.

While Graybill has been involved with the organization and has served as a board member since its founding, Yoder’s death from cancer in 2023 launched a new chapter for both Graybill and the ministry.

“I never dreamt I’d be in this position, but when Les died, it all changed,” Graybill said.

As a former dairy farmer in New Providence and a dairy, equine and agronomy consultant for 18 years with New Holland-based Homestead Nutrition, Graybill brings plenty of ag experience to the post.

Much of AgConnect’s work in Moldova has involved teaching some fairly basic farming practices such as optimizing plant populations and fertility, Graybill said. Education about soil conservation has also been an integral part of the work.

Similarities in the Moldovan climate and landscape to Lancaster County are helpful in the transfer of farming knowledge.

But while Moldovan soils are deep and rich, Graybill observed that many farmers there lack training in good conservation practices.

When AgConnect provided a John Deere 7000 no-till planter to local farmers, skepticism prevailed.

“The mentality that ‘this won’t work’ was pretty strong,” Graybill said.

The concept of cover crops was also met with raised eyebrows.

“We had a difficult time convincing them to plant a cover crop that you’re going to kill,” he said.

Another observation that stood out to Graybill during his first visit to Moldova in 2006 was seeing how some Moldovan farmers believed manure was detrimental to crops.

“They had heard that manure was toxic to plants,” he said. “They would just pile it outside and let it break down.”

While commercial fertilizers are readily available in Moldova, many small farmers can’t afford them, which makes manure especially useful.

“That was one idea we pretty much changed,” Graybill said.

Cultivating Entrepreneurs After Communism

While Moldova is a major regional producer of grapes and wine, AgConnect Ministries is focused on other types of food production, especially on small, poor farms.

The country is still dealing with the influence of Soviet state-run collective farms.

Moldovan dairy farmers today fall into two main types: small farmers who milk about five cows and supply their village with dairy products, and larger farms that can have several hundred cows.

Most of the larger farms are run by managers from the communist era, and those farms tend to have more money for equipment and inputs, he said.

When Moldova declared independence in 1991, many of the state-run farms were broken up and turned over to individuals.

It was a messy process that often resulted in impractical allocations of land and loss of productivity.

Breaking free from the old methods has not been easy, Graybill said.

“They were farming in an antiquated way and weren’t really seeing outside of the box,” he said.

AgConnect has helped introduce financial planning, which is a new idea for many farmers there.

“They were very much living for the day or week or month,” Graybill said. “They had to start thinking differently.”

He is heartened by those he sees taking an opportunity to be entrepreneurs.

Graybill told of three couples who started a beef herd and catering business as a way to capitalize on bins of sunflowers, corn and wheat that they had been unable to sell for a profit.

Moldova’s farm economy has been depressed by the large amounts of grain and other farm products received from neighboring Ukraine to avoid Russian warships in the Black Sea.

Inflation caused by the war has also taken a toll on the farm economy, with the cost of fuel and other essential imports skyrocketing.

Despite the challenges, the three Moldovan families have found a way to turn a profit by using the low-priced grains to feed their cattle and supply a lunch wagon serving up their own beef.

“These are good people, good farmers,” Graybill said.

One ongoing challenge is a lack of agricultural education in Moldovan schools, which leaves many children unaware of their food sources — a problem also familiar in the U.S.

And because smartphones are relatively inexpensive, many Moldovan youths are attached to them in the same way American kids are.

“They all have cellphones and spend too much time on them,” Graybill said.

The feeling that often prevails among young Moldovans is that life would be better in another country.

“Most Moldovan kids want to learn computers and get out of Moldova,” Graybill said.

Moldova has already experienced a mass exodus, with a current population of about 3 million, compared to more than 4 million at the beginning of the 2000s.

“Villages are empty. Churches are empty,” Graybill said.

Those who remain tend to be eager to learn.

“The people we work with are the ones who want to stay and improve their country,” he said. “You’ve got to admire them.”

Visions for the Future

To address the need for youth ag education, Graybill said he felt called to start a program similar to 4-H in the local junior high school.

“If you’re going to have a future in ag, you’re going to have to teach the kids,” he said.

He envisions an educational greenhouse at the school, along with courses on livestock raising and other types of farming.

His goal is to have the program running and have an ag teacher in place by the fall of 2025.

“We need a teacher to go to Moldova,” Graybill said.

He also hopes for a Moldovan native to get involved in educating the youths.

Meanwhile, AgConnect has established a small homestead and farm in the village of Maximovca, where the school is also located.

The farmstead features two greenhouses for growing fresh produce, managed by AgConnect’s year-round farmer/agronomist Angela Zimmerman.

“We kind of got a reputation the first year (of growing vegetables in 2023),” Graybill said. “People came to get our produce because it was so good.”

While Moldovans are accustomed to field corn, sweet corn is new to them.

The plan is to hire local Moldovans to work on the farm and make it a self-sustaining enterprise.

Graybill is mindful of differences in culture and mindset that put some limits on Moldovan farmers’ ability to adopt U.S. farming techniques.

“We can’t make American farmers out of them.” Graybill said. “That doesn’t work.”

The goal is instead to promote sustainable practices and financial decisions that work for Moldovans on their own terms.

While AgConnect continues to put down roots in Moldova, it recently began doing training in the even more impoverished country of Kenya, and plans to start working in Senegal.

The nonprofit is open to going anywhere the need for teaching agriculture and the gospel are apparent.

“We’re not confined to any place in the world,” he said. “We want to go where the Lord calls us.”

Sharing the gospel as top priority “is easy to do when you’re teaching people how to feed themselves,” he said.

Graybill and Zimmerman are far from being alone in the ministry, garnering support from various churches and individuals in Lancaster County. The group has a board of directors made up of Moldovan pastors in addition to the Lancaster County-based board.

Not least of the ministry’s supporters is his wife, Elaine, who Graybill calls his “executive secretary.”

The nonprofit will hold a fundraising banquet at Shady Maple Smorgasbord on March 28.

The event will include presentations on the ministry’s work and feature a speaker from Moldova. For more information, contact Graybill at herbg@agconnectministries.org.