Mozambique: Cashew price drops to US$0.55 per kilogram
Fragmented donor flagship agriculture projects have been such a failure that it might be preferable to stop wasting cooperation money and stop increasing the Mozambican debt, concluded the Rural Observatory (Observatorio do Meio Rural) after an agribusiness conference 19 July. It is an extremely harsh assessment from the best informed rural researchers. (Read the ORM communique HERE )
Projects are dispersed, disconnected and fail to reach more than a few of their targets. The wrong equipment is provided, and servicing is not available; there is no credit; there is no training in management and maintenance of infrastructure such as irrigation; and there is no training in business skills. Each project has a different management system and investments are financed by lenders and donors which creates a clientelist system, and tends to benefit elites and those close to political power.
Priority should go to guaranteed markets with price incentives, at least for a few crops, as happens with sugar and cashew now. Next would come rural roads, training, agricultural services, and storage.
Comment: It is a damning report which explains why two decades of agricultural aid and loan projects have not reduced rural poverty. But it is unlikely to be read by Mozambican politicians or by lenders and donors.
By Joseph Hanlon
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