6 May 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican government has invested 7.7 million meticais (380,000 US dollars) in the purchase of wheat seeds to resume the production of this grain and reduce the country's dependence on wheat imports.
About 75 tonnes of seeds have been distributed so far in the western province of Tete, 60 tonnes in Manica, in the centre of the country, and 15 tonnes in the southern provinces of Gaza and Maputo. These quantities are thought to be enough to plant 1,790 hectares, divided into 1,500 hectares in the peasant family sector, and the remainder in the commercial farming sector.
Agriculture Minister Soares Nhaca said that the country expects production of between 1.3 and 2 tonnes of wheat per hectare in the family sector, and four tonnes per hectare in the commercial sector.
Even if all the peasants produced two tonnes a hectare, the total amount grown as a result of these 75 tonnes of seeds would be just 4,160 tonnes, which is just 1.2 per cent of the country's wheat deficit of 360,000 tonnes.
The district of Tsangano, on the Angonia plateau in Tete, is the only part of the country where wheat was grown last year. Nhaca said Tsangano has great potential, but has only been producing 10,000 tonnes of wheat a year.
Wheat production in Tsangano is entirely in the hands of the family sector, and the Agriculture Ministry wants to introduce commercial farming there, and overcome the lack of investments.
Nhaca believed that Chokwe, in Gaza, and areas in the Zambezi valley, have great potential for wheat. Indeed, these areas did produce wheat during colonial rule, but wheat cultivation was abandoned after independence. He said the government intends to increase investments in wheat production to 503 million meticais by 2014, and attain harvests of up to 225,000 tonnes a year in an area of 180,000 hectares.
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