Enormous damage to agriculture in Boane, Mozambique

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Enormous damage to agriculture in Boane, Mozambique

7:54 CAT | 01 Mar 2016

The damage done by the storm of 20 February in the district of Boane, some 30 kilometres west of Maputo, is much worse than initially imagined, with the high winds devastating several major agricultural concerns,

According to a report on the independent television station STV, Bananalandia, one of the main producers of bananas in southern Mozambique, suffered huge losses. The company management told STV that the winds destroyed 270,000 of the 540,000 banana trees which had been planted.

“From the plants knocked down, we have lost 324,000 crates of bananas”, said Joaquim Joao, the human resource manager of Bananalandia. He could see no way of recovering anything from the damage.

He believed the company would now have to make some of its workers redundant, since the production and revenue of Bananalandia will fall sharply this year. “We shall have to dismiss some workers, because we will be unable to pay them”, said Joao. “This situation will make things more critical because we were already facing problems with our irrigation system. Much of the tubing has been damaged, and added to this is the drought, which is making access to water difficult”.

Poultry farms in Boane also suffered major losses. Galovos, one of the major suppliers of eggs to Maputo, lost 16,000 birds in the storm, and the losses are put at 25 million meticais (about 532,000 US dollars, at current exchange rates).

The Galovos manager, Dries Venter, remarked that the storm “has considerably reduced our production capacity”.

Another poultry farmer, Joao Nunes, saw all his hopes for the future come tumbling down. He had 29,000 chicks in two pavilions, but only 2,000 survived the winds of 20 February.

“I spent a lot of money to feed and care for the animals”, he said, “and until 20 February everything was going well, but the bad weather has destroyed all our projections, all our investment”.

Visiting Boane at the weekend, Deputy Agriculture Minister Luisa Meque announced that a line of credit on favourable terms is being offered to farmers so that they can recover from the storm. “We encourage all those who have been harmed by the storm to approach the Ministry so that they can have access to financing”, she said.

A survey undertaken by the country’s relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC), showed that the neighbouring districts of Matutuine and Namaacha had also been affected.

In addition to the deaths of seven people in Boane, a further 87 had been injured. 829 houses had been destroyed (almost all of them in Boane), and a further 930 homes were damaged. Three classrooms were destroyed and 18 were damaged. 20 electricity pylons were knocked down by the winds.

The authorities have provided assistance for the funerals in Boane, while the injured are being cared for in the Boane Health Centre and in Maputo Central Hospital. Three accommodation centres have been set up for the people who lost their homes, where shelter, food and water are available.

Source: AIM