Buzi — Daniel Chapo, the presidential candidate of Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party, on Sunday argued that agricultural mechanization is the solution for creating the large number of jobs that the country's young people need.
Speaking at a rally in Buzi district, in the central province of Sofala, Chapo said that mechanised agriculture would also encourage the emergency of small and medium agro-processing companies, which would provide job opportunities for the district's currently unemployed youth.
He promised to help Buzi abandon subsistence agriculture and make the switch to mechanised agriculture. Chapo said he would base this on his experience in the southern province of Inhambane, where he was governor before Frelimo chose him as its presidential candidate.
He claimed that in Inhambane he had been successful in attracting investment into local agriculture, benefitting from the introduction of processing units speeding up the production and marketing of agricultural produce.
He promised that in Buzi his government would take measures to increase the production and productivity of smallholder farmers. Chapo pledged that his government would provide agricultural inputs, finance agro-business initiatives, and introduce agricultural insurance, extension and research.
This would all be based on "a robust strategy of mechanization', with its connections to transport, storage, processing, marketing and exports.
"We want to stimulate and encourage commercial agriculture so as to increase the production of food and of export products', he added.
Chapo also promised, that, if he is elected, he will revive the Buzi Company, a sugar mill and plantation that was founded over a century ago, but was abandoned by its owners at the time of Mozambican independence in 1975. The war of destabilization waged against Mozambique by the South African apartheid regime then made it impossible to rebuild the company.
There have been several schemes to restructure the Buzi company, including using its sugar as the raw material for alcohol production, but none have come to fruition.
As a sugar producer, the Buzi company would be in direct competition with Mozambique's four functioning sugar mills, which provide more than enough sugar for the country's domestic needs and export the surplus.
