Development of extension services – a challenge for the RDI flow in the agriculture of the Republic of Moldova

The aim of the paper is to analyse the linkage between science development, innovative ideas, their dissemination, establishment of extension services and their impact on the innovative development of the agricultural sector. As a result, solutions for expanding the coverage of the extension network, together with the diversification and improvement of its services are provided. The primary data from key stakeholders were collected through a semi-structured interview. Secondary data were collected from official statistical yearbooks, publications of the National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova, decisions of the Government of Moldova related to the development of the RDI activities and extension services, articles and studies developed by local and foreign experts. An important source of the secondary information was the Country report elaborated with the contribution of authors in the framework of the FP7 project “AGRICISTRADE”