Mozambique: Agro-processing research needed to reduce dependence on food imports – Watch

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Mozambique: Agro-processing research needed to reduce dependence on food imports – Watch

1:15 CAT | 23 Aug 2024

Screen grab: Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior

Mozambique’s minister of science, technology and higher education said on Thursday that scientific research in agro-processing should respond to the country’s needs by reducing dependence on imports.

‘Research must be orientated towards results that contribute directly to the socio-economic development of our communities,’ Daniel Nivagara said at the opening of the national seminar on the dissemination of agro-processing innovations and technologies, in Maputo.

He called on the country’s scientists and academics to continue to ‘explore new frontiers of knowledge’, focusing on their practicality and new discoveries. He suggested creating public policies that encourage ‘innovative entrepreneurship’ to transform communities.

‘We firmly believe that innovations can revolutionise the agro-processing sector, reducing dependence on imports, increasing the country’s capacity to meet its own food needs and generating employment and income opportunities for communities,’ he stressed.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Mozambique Stock Exchange (BVM), Salimo Valá, one of the speakers at the seminar who addressed the topic of investment in the agro-processing industry, called on the Mozambican government to invest in the creation of science, technology and innovation learning institutions, with a view to the country’s development.

‘We have to invest seriously in training human resources, education in science, technology, and innovation, and infrastructure, including institutional infrastructure (…). We have to spread technology parks, innovation centres, business incubators and venture capital funds throughout the country to finance bold innovation projects,’ he appealed.

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Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi acknowledged on 15 May that the country must start demanding local processing of raw materials to reduce imports and contract only some local processing of unfinished imported products.

‘The time has come to start thinking big. We can even, in what we know how to do, say ‘that doesn’t come out of Mozambique any more, they process it here’. We can do that,’ said Nyusi in his opening speech at the 19th Annual Private Sector Conference in Maputo.

Mozambique’s trade deficit improved by almost % in the first quarter, falling to $646.4 million (€597 million), according to the central bank’s balance of payments report.

According to the Bank of Mozambique document, preliminary data indicates that the Mozambican economy ‘reduced its demand for external savings to finance its consumption and investment needs’ by 16.9% in the first quarter, with the combined balance of the current and capital accounts totalling $628 million (€580.1 million).

‘This result was due, on the one hand, to the contraction of the current account deficit by 20.8% to $646.4 million [€597.1 million] and, on the other, to the 69.7% decrease in the capital account surplus,’ he added.

Source: Lusa