Mozambique to be self-sufficient in maize this season

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Mozambique to be self-sufficient in maize this season

1:32 CAT | 01 Jun 2018

File photo: Lusa

Mozambique is expected to be self-sufficient in maize in the current agricultural season, despite the pests blighting the crop, agriculture minister Higino Marrule announced yesterday.

Mozambican farmers lost 188,000 hectares of plantations to pest and adverse weather conditions in the first four months of this year.

This area corresponds to 1.2 percent of the total cultivated area foreseen for the 2017/18 campaign in the country, Marrule said on the sidelines of Ministry of Agriculture Coordinating Council meeting in Maputo.

The worst-affected crop was maize, with 116,000 hectares lost, the minister said, although he remained confident that the country would be self-sufficient and even foresees a 27 percent increase in production from 2.6 to 3.3 million tons.

Most families in Mozambique practice subsistence agriculture, and for them, climate change, which contributes to the spread of pests and diseases, is a serious threat, the minister said.

“We must be permanently prepared for epidemiological surveillance and for pest and disease control, with special attention to pests that attack crops that are crucial to food security,” he said.

Regarding the production of cash crops, cotton should register the highest growth in the country, in the order of 53 percent, with an estimated production of 80,000 tons, against 52,000 tons last year.

Sugarcane production is forecast to increase by 45 percent, from 2.9 to 4.2 million tons, while cashew sales fell to 126,000 tons transacted, 8 percent less than the previous year. A total of 32,600 tonnes of raw cashew were exported, while the Mozambican processing industry absorbed the other 47,800 tonnes, added Higino Marrule.

The minister warned that the 2018-19 agricultural campaign would take place “in a context of resource scarcity, which challenges us to prioritise planning for actions that have an impact on production”.

Source: Lusa