Maputo — Mozambique is to receive support in the production of improved seeds and fertilizers from the Kenya-based Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

According to Agriculture Minister Soares Nhaca, AGRA will help the country undertake research on seeds and fertilizer, to help Mozambique develop its own green revolution, through training technical staff and making funding available.

Speaking at a Monday press conference in Maputo, Nhaca said that Mozambique has the potential to produce improved seed to boost agricultural production and productivity. With support from AGRA, it could also produce fertilizers. Initially this would be the industrial production of guano (fertilizer that uses the excrement of birds and bats as its raw material).

Nhaca did not say how much these activities would cost, or when they would start - merely that agreements to this effect now existed. "We can't yet talk about the sums involved", he said, "but we have defined some areas of cooperation, and there is a great willingness on the part of AGRA to cooperate with us so that we can advance towards the green revolution".

Nhaca said his ministry wants to involve private businesses in producing improved seeds and fertilizers. Some small companies have already benefited from AGRA funding to start this activity.

AGRA's director for seed programmes, Joseph de Vries, told the press conference that AGRA is prepared to help the country achieve success in facing the challenges posed a by a green revolution. He added that AGRA is financing the training of Mozambican technical staff who will push the green revolution forward.

De Vries added that Mozambique must invest in agricultural research, and said his organisation is prepared tom assist in this area too.

Among the matters Nhaca and de Vries discussed prior to the press conference were agricultural marketing, the processing of agricultural produce, and micro-finance arrangements that could provide peasant farmers with small loans.