27 April 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican government believes that the current international food crisis, while posing a short term threat to the country, could become an opportunity for increasing domestic agricultural production and stimulating agro-industry.
According to Agriculture Minister Soares Nhaca, the government is designing a series of strategic actions to eliminate deficits in the production of basic foodstuffs, and to export a surplus once the domestic market has been satisfied. These are described as medium term measures with a time horizon of three years.
Some shorter term measures are also under consideration, in order to improve access to productive land, create food reserves, and improve the transport of food from where it is produced to where it is consumed. (A longstanding complaint is that grain rots in peasant barns because no-one comes to buy it, and take it to consumers in the towns).
The government also intends to speed up rehabilitation of the local roads linking productive areas to markets, and to increase the access of small farmers to the agricultural inputs they need.
The government admits that the country faces a serious deficit in several basic foods. Thus almost all the wheat consumed in Mozambique is imported - this year the country will need to import almost 470,000 tonnes of wheat. The rice deficit is 316,000 tonnes, and the country needs to import 169,000 tonnes of potatoes. The shortfall for vegetable oil is 50,400 tonnes, for fish 54,000 tonnes (though it is notoriously difficult to put a figure on the catches of the country's artisanal fishermen), and for chicken, 24,000 tonnes.
"These measures are intended to reduce the country's food deficit in three years rather than five (the time allotted in the Agriculture Ministry's strategic plan)", Nhaca told reporters on Saturday. He promised that the government is also monitoring prices to ensure that they do not reach the levels found in some other countries.
He believed that Mozambique could seize the opportunity afforded by the crisis to lift production. This was particularly the case with rice: Nhaca said that of all the members of SADC (Southern African Development Community), Mozambique has the available land, the best climatic conditions, and the know-how to expand rapidly rice production, replacing imports, and perhaps eventually producing a surplus for export.
As for wheat, Nhaca argued that the current high world prices would compensate for efforts to expand domestic wheat production. So far wheat is only produced on the Angonia plateau in the western province of Tete, but the government is convinced that several other parts of the country possess the appropriate agro-climatic conditions for wheat production.
Nhaca also thought that, rather than viewing it simply as a subsistence crop, much more of the country's cassava could be marketed, and turned into flour. (One project under study is to make cheaper bread, by using a mixture of wheat and cassava flour).
The Minister argued that Mozambique is competitive in producing soya and sunflower, which could replace imports, and supply the national vegetable oil and animal feed industries.
The challenge, Nhaca admitted, is to ensure that producers respond to the opportunities. "Many producers abandoned some crops because of the costs of production", he said. But the rise in international prices would now make it worth their while to produce them again.
This is far from automatic. Nhaca said that, to stimulate a response from the producers, large amounts of fertilizers must be imported and put at their disposal. He added that the government wishes to revive the national seed industry, in order to ensure that peasants are supplied with good seeds.
Other measures planned are expanding irrigation systems, increasing the use of animal traction, and mobilizing resources for special lines of credit at favourable interest rates for agriculture.
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