Maputo — Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday launched the 2023 agricultural marketing campaign, and announced a target of more than 17 million tonnes of assorted crops.
Speaking in Chiuta, in the central province of Tete, Nyusi stressed that the success of the campaign would depend on the coordinated action of all those involved - including farmers, agro-industrial companies, suppliers of inputs and equipment, transporters, and the financial sector.
"We are calling on all these stakeholders to continue valuing agricultural production, generating income for rural households, which is our ultimate goal', he said.
Nyusi pledged government support for production, through agricultural mechanization, technical capacity building, and the provision of credit for producers on favourable terms.
The President put real economic growth in 2022 at 4.15 per cent, driven by the agricultural sector. This growth was achieved despite two cyclones (Ana and Gombe), and excessive rains that affected 80 districts, causing the loss of 36,000 hectares of crops.
Despite this, there was a 15 per cent increase in grain production in 2022. The increase in vegetables was 19 per cent, in oilseeds 18 per cent, and in pulses, eight per cent.
The major contributor to agricultural marketing in 2022 was the northern province of Nampula, with over five million tonnes marketed, which was 28 per cent of the total.
In all, 17.945 million tonnes of crops were marketing in 2022, an increase of 16 per cent on the 15.457 million tonnes of 2021.
This increase, said Nyusi, was driven by factors such as implementation of the government's flagship agricultural development programme, "Sustenta', the introduction of the Rotating Marketing Fund, and agro-processing value chains through the World Bank's Catalytic Fund. Mozambican industries were able to absorb almost two million tonnes of raw materials from the country's agriculture.
As for export crops, Nyusi said that 8,809 tonnes of raw cotton were exported, valued at 14 million US dollars. 142,673 tonnes of unprocessed cashew nuts were exported, bringing in revenue of 52 million dollars. The export of macadamia nuts reached 2,910 tonnes, valued at 14.5 million dollars.
