Maputo, Mozambique — Mozambique's grain production rose from 400,000 tonnes in 1990 to one million in 1997, the country's agriculture minister Helder Muteia has said.
Interviewed by the national news agency (AIM) in Maputo on Monday, he said the objective was to produce more than 2 million tonnes in 2001.
Muteia was speaking at the beginning of a five-day meeting to assess the performance of the National Agriculture Development Programme (PROAGRI), which has entered its third year.
The meeting is one of the regular consultations the agriculture ministry holds with its co-operation partners to revise the national agriculture programme.
Some 202 million US dollars are expected to be spent under the PROAGRI, which is scheduled to last for five years.
The money would be used to improve institutional development, support agricultural production, rural extension, livestock, land, irrigation, agricultural research, and forestry and wildlife.
Asked to comment on the performance of all the bodies involved in PROAGRI, Muteia said "in general, everyone is pulling their weight, although there are some shortcomings as regards co-ordination. Some effort is needed to improve this component".
He said that a memorandum on procedures and practices is due to be signed on Monday to clarify the responsibilities of each of the actors within PROAGRI.
Nuteia said that considerable institutional improvements had occurred in the agricultural sector under RROAGRI. He cited financial and human resource management in the ministry as an examples of this.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Even in the provinces where the greatest difficulties had been encountered at the start of the programme, improvements were now being noted.
"What we feel is that there has been an evolution in all the provinces", said Muteia, "but we still have some that are lagging some what behind the others." He attributed this to insufficient skilled staff in these provinces.
Muteia stressed the importance of the integrated nature of PROAGRI, which is attempting to establish linkages between all the various components of agricultural development.
This contrasted with the past, when "we had about 400 separate projects, each one with its own specific programmes and with agendas we did not know about.
There was an import of all sorts of foreign workers, and often it was very difficult to measure their impact," the minister added.
