Mozambique: Acute food insecurity in 9% of households, down from 30% in 2019 – INE’s Basic Indicators of Agriculture and Food report

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Mozambique: Acute food insecurity in 9% of households, down from 30% in 2019 – INE’s Basic Indicators of Agriculture and Food report

8:53 CAT | 13 Sep 2023

Image: VOA

The proportion of Mozambican households in a situation of acute food insecurity fell from 29. 9% in 2019 to 9% in 2022, according to a report by Mozambique’s National Statistics Institute (INE) to which Lusa had access on Tuesday.

According to the report Basic Indicators of Agriculture and Food from 2018 to 2022, the situation in Cabo Delgado province is the most worrying, with 25% of households in a situation of acute food insecurity, still half the proportion of the previous year (2021), which was 49%.

The province has been affected for almost six years by terrorist attacks that have forced thousands of families to leave their homelands in search of safety in other districts, not just Cabo Delgado.

On the other hand, only 2% of families in Niassa were food insecure in 2022, 4% in Manica province and 5% in Maputo.

Also according to INE, the number of family and business farms in Mozambique grew from 4,133,616 in 2018 to 4,614,495 in 2022, most of them in the provinces of Zambézia (882,818) and Nampula (808,505).

Maize continued to be the crop with the largest cultivation area in Mozambique, with 1,817,487 hectares in 2022, compared to 1,613,535 in 2018, followed by cassava, with 910,826 hectares. Overall production rose from 1,406,794 tonnes in 2018 to 2,382,511 tonnes in 2022, of which 28.3% came from Tete province.

Mozambique had a total cereal cultivation area of 2,419,692 hectares in 2022, led by the provinces of Sofala (466,047 hectares), Tete (428,190 hectares) and Zambézia (427,214 hectares). Cabo Delgado province had a cereal cultivation area of 208,525 hectares in 2018, which fell to 158,139 hectares last year.

In 2022, agricultural production in Mozambique was guaranteed with 2,580 tractors (722 in 2018) and 2,269 ploughs, among other mechanised equipment made available under agricultural modernisation programmes.

Also in the period from 2018 to 2022, the INE report points out that credit to the agriculture and fisheries sector fell from 118,912 million meticais ( €1.730 billion) to 109,342 million meticais ( €1.590 billion).

In terms of beef production, Mozambique went from 13,884 tonnes in 2018 to 20,051 tonnes last year (an increase of 12.8%), more than half (52.1%) coming from Maputo province.

Mozambique’s population grew to 31.6 million inhabitants in 2022, INE recognises, adding that just over 20.7 million inhabitants, corresponding to 65.5% of the total, live in rural areas.

Source: Lusa