A planned agricultural aid trip to Moldova by a team of scientific experts from the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) has been postponed at the last minute due to treacherous snow conditions in the eastern European country.

Professor Wayne Powell, chief executive of Cambridge-based NIAB, was set to fly out on a six-day visit on January 4, with two fellow scientists and John Law, from the charity, Central and Eastern European Ministries, which organised the trip.

Powell and team members Mike Day, Don Pendegrast and Terry Rugg had planned to set up polytunnels in the village of Burlacu, which has a population of 1,200, and establish a mini research site to demonstrate how various crops can be grown to provide food over a longer growing season, such as cabbage, which can be produced throughout the year, as well as maize, peppers, tomatoes and sweetcorn.

The team had travelled to Luton airport for their flight to Bucharest, but it became clear that even if they were able to fly, strong winds and snow drifts had blocked roads to Moldova and that there was no guarantee they would be able to reach their destination in time to complete their mission.

Powell hopes to the visit the region in May.

He said: “Although we are disappointed, we will re-schedule our trip for later this year and focus on preparing for establishment of the demonstration site in May 2008.”

Law added: “It was very frustrating for the whole team to be unable to get into the region, but photographs of the roads in south-east Romania illustrate just how bad the weather had made driving conditions. We live in a relatively benign part of the world weather-wise, but in Moldova they have to cope with extremes of temperature (from -20ºC up to 40ºC) annually, and we were aware that there was a risk of us being able to geti nto Moldova and not getting out.”

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