Maputo — Mozambique currently has a surplus of about 75,000 tonnes of maize, according to the national director of agrarian services in the Ministry of Agriculture, Boaventura Nuvunga.

But the areas with a maize surplus are often a long way from the areas where there is a food deficit. Nuvunga recognised that there are "pockets of hunger", and blamed this on problems of transporting and distributing surplus crops.

The country has long faced a problem of moving food from fertile areas in the north of the country, to deficit areas in the south, often along very poor roads. Nuvunga hoped that the new bridge over the Zambezi at Caia, due to be completed later this year will help improve the movement of maize from northern to southern Mozambique.

Nuvung told AIM that in 2007-08 Mozambique produced over 1.677 million tonnes of maize, an improvement of 7.9 per cent on the previous year, when the figure was 1.566 tonnes. The projection for 2008-09 is for a further growth of 10.5 percent, bringing the total maize harvest for the year to almost 1,855 tonnes.

Nuvunga attributed the increase in maize production to such factors as the expansion in the network of extensionists, improved seeds and other inputs, and better linkages between producers and the market.

The number of state employed rural extensionists has risen from 590 in 2007 to 644 now, and the number of peasant households they assist has risen from 285,000 to 383,000

Nuvunga said that with the further recruitment now under way the number of extensionists will reach 828, "which will increase the number of producers assisted to over half a million in the 2009/2010 campaign".

Lm/pf (286)