Maputo — One of Mozambique's most prominent non-governmental organisations, the Community Development Foundation (FDC), has described as "impossible' the claim by Agriculture Minister Celso Correia that 90 per cent of Mozambicans are eating three meals a day.
Last week, at a meeting in Rome with the General Director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Qu Dongyu, Correia said "90 per cent of the Mozambican population is food secure, that is, they are eating three meals a day. This is a great success for Mozambicans and now our great challenge is to ensure that this is sustainable'.
This claim, the FDC said in a press release, "contrasts with the reality experienced by millions of citizens in Mozambique. People are dying of hunger in our country!'
Further, given the significance of Correia's claim, it should have been made to a Mozambican audience in the first place rather than in Italy - particularly in light of the "Zero Hunger' programme his Ministry had recently launched.
The "three meals a day' claim contrasts with other official statistics, the FDC pointed out. Thus the World Food Programme (WFP) puts at 80 per cent the proportion of Mozambicans who do not have an adequate diet.
A study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2021 concluded that 70 per cent of the population is living in a situation of vulnerability.
Surveys by Mozambican state bodies themselves contradicted Correia. The Household Budget Survey for 2019/2020 undertaken by the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed that in the rural areas 60 per cent of household expenditure is on food and non-alcoholic drinks.
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That survey showed that the average monthly expenditure of a Mozambican household was 8,108 meticais (127 US dollars, at the current exchange rate), equivalent to 1,695 meticais per person.
That was an expenditure of 56.5 meticais per person per day. "Obviously it is humanly impossible to obtain three decent meals a day with 56.5 meticais', comments the FDC.
Food insecurity, the release adds, has been worsened still further by terrorism in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, and by the recurrent natural disasters that have hit the country. According to the WFP, about a million Mozambicans displaced from their homes by terrorism are in a state of food insecurity.
At the very least, the FDC remarks, Correia's claims in Rome are "controversial and disconcerting'.
The FDC demands an explanation from the Minister. "Our experience of working with the communities confirms that the situation is in fact dramatic, which is why these statements cause indignation', the release said.
Correia, the FDC added, should now publicly explain to Mozambicans how the country had obtained the levels of food security he had claimed in Rome.
