Northern Moldavia Plain

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Northern Moldavia Plain (Romanian: Câmpia Moldovei de Nord) is a cca. 10,000 sq. km. geographic area split between northern Moldova (Glodeni, Râşcani, and Făleşti districts, Municipality of Bălţi, parts of Drochia, Săngerei, and Ungheni districts), and north-eastern Romania (most of Botoşani, and parts of Iaşi counties).

Despite the name, it is not a flatland, but a region dotted with hills. Northern Moldavian Plain is surrounded from all sides by hills: Moldavian Plateau to the west, NW, and SW, Northern Bessarabian Plateau to the north, Dniester Ridge and Ciuluc-Soloneţ Hills to the east, and Corneşti Hills to the south. These hills are characterized by deep gorges, and the term plains is employed to denote the fact that the area in-between the hill formations is visibly narrower and less jagged.

The Northern Moldavia Plain is composed of the Middle Prut Plains in the west and center, split between Romania and Moldova, the Jijia Plain in the south, situated in Romania, and the Bălţi Plain in the north-east, situated in Moldova. The Plain is traversed from north to south by the Prut River, which splits them roughly in half. In the south of the western part lies the valley of the Jijia River, a tributary of the Prut. The eastern end of the plains, the Bălţi Plain, contains the upper Răut River valley, a tributary of the Dniester River.

The region is a traditional agricultural area, favored by several factors, such as the black earth (earth with a very high natural fertility), a high degree of deforestation that occurred in the 19th century, and the tradition. Crops, vegetables, industrial plants (such as tobacco), fruit trees (such as apple trees), fodder for livestock, and occasionally grapes, potatoes, and berry shrubs are cultivated. The agriculture is overwhelmingly dominant over the traditional vegetation, (deciduous) forests, and only occasionally forest steppes. Traditional wildlife - wolves, foxes, rabbits, boars, roes, storks, geese, ducks - are very rarely found outside a few remaining forests. A traditional horse growing area, the Northern Moldavia Plain since the beginning of the 20th century has specialized in livestock (cows, sheep) and poultry, not least because of the havoc inflicted upon the horse farms by World War II.