World Bank to disburse EUR216 million for agriculture in Mozambique

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World Bank to disburse EUR216 million for agriculture in Mozambique

2:34 CAT | 16 Feb 2017

The World Bank is to spend EUR216 million supporting a rural development project aimed at encouraging small farmer agricultural production in Mozambique. The initial phase of the project will cover the provinces of Zambézia in the center of the country, and Nampula in the north.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting in Maputo on Tuesday evening, Mozambique’s environment minister Celso Correia said that the integrated and inclusive rural development project, entitled “Sustenta”, aimed to stimulate production among small farmers and would benefit more than 700,000 people.

“Access to these conditions will enable rural families to increase their income through productivity and access to markets,” the minister said, dubbing the project “extremely ambitious”. The project will create an interest-free financing mechanism for agricultural inputs.

During the initial phase, the Mozambican government also plans to revitalize some 240 hectares of irrigated land, as well as rehabilitating infrastructure important for agricultural practice in these two provinces. “Our expectation is that this investment in families will bring speedy results in the fight against poverty,” the minister concluded, adding that the project would be officially launched Nampula on Friday in.

The majority of the Mozambican population in rural areas practice subsistence agriculture As a way of addressing high poverty rates and chronic malnutrition. The Mozambican government, which has defined agriculture as the basis of the Mozambican economy, has pointed to the industrialization of the sector as one of its main challenges.

Source: Lusa