5 November 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican Agriculture Ministry received on Tuesday 15 new tractors to be distributed to farmers in Tete, Sofala, and Manica provinces, in the central region of the country.
These are among a total of 50 tractors to be distributed in all provinces during the 2008/2009 agricultural campaign. Ten tractors have already been distributed in Sofala, Zambezia, and Inhambane provinces.
The ministry's Permanent Secretary, Daniel Clemente, said that the distribution of the tractors is part of the implementation of the National Food Production Plan for the 2008/2011 period that calls for increased mechanisation of agriculture.
The Agricultural Development Fund, an institution under the Agriculture Ministry, is in charge of managing the equipments.
Each tractor, equipped with all accessories, costs about 1.5 million meticais (62,000 US dollars). The beneficiaries must make a down payment of at least five per cent of the value of the tractor, plus the insurance, and have five years to pay off their debt to the state.
A document from the Agriculture Ministry, submitted to the Cabinet last week, says that besides this batch the plan is to purchase a further 110 tractors which should arrive in Mozambique as from the first quarter of 2009 (and thus will only be fully used in the 2009/2010 agricultural campaign).
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