Salma Ahmad
MAPUTO, Mozambique (IPS) – The vision and effectiveness of Mozambique’s Green Revolution Strategy was today recognised with an award. The country’s action plan saw cereal production rise by 15 percent in just the last year.
Presenting the Food Security Policy Leadership Award, the chair of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources and Policy Network (FANRPAN), Dr Sindiso Ngwenya, said Mozambique qualified for the award in recognition of the country’s efforts to develop agriculture.
Women like these farmers in Zambezia are at the heart of Mozambique's strategy to build agricultural potential and reduce rural poverty. Credit: David Corcoran/IRIN
“In Mozambique, agriculture is essential for economic growth, because the sector employs 80 percent of the labour force.”
The country launched its Green Revolution Strategy in 2007, in response to high food and fuel prices. The strategy targets smallholder farmers directly, as well as medium- and large-scale farmers.
New roads and bridges have been built, part of strengthening links between farmers and consumers. The ministry of health has gone into each district of the country to explain how to grow, cook and eat a wider variety of crops and improve nutrition.
A decentralised budget has been created which allocates money to local communities to take charge of designing and carrying out projects of their own to improve income, food production and job creation.
And the results have already begun to show: crop production has increased, and extreme food insecurity has been reduced.
Yet the government is not resting on its laurels. Prime Minister Luísa Diogo says Mozambique will work to increase the area under irrigation; of the 3.3 million hectares of irrigable land in the country, only 50,000 ha is presently irrigated.
Receiving the award on behalf of the president, Diogo promised the government will also give priority to women. According to her, “women are indeed vital in agricultural production of our country, and they need government’s support, to double their efforts.”
Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Professor Firmino G Mucavele of the Eduardo Mondlane University, also emphasised the need for women to be supported.
“Women are very crucial to farming and there is need to improve their productivity in terms of giving them the right to have access to fertiliser and providing them with good markets,” he said.
The professor also added that a good political leader pays attention to agriculture and enables the small holder farmer to produce crops for both home use and for export.
Mucavele also called on African governments to avoid closing their borders when neighbouring countries are experiencing food shortages. He said there is a need to improve cross-border trade, for the development of agriculture, achievement of food security and the prevention of hunger in African countries.
