The Daily IIJ

Maputo – China, Vietnam and India have taken the lead in pouring financial assistance, technology transfers and human resources training into Mozambique’s agriculture sector in a series of growing cereal partnership agreements and contracts that promise to transform the lives of millions that depend on farming for a living.

But experts believe that while the string of recent cereal agreements to boost agricultural production and capacity in the areas of rice, maize and soyabeans production bring substantial benefits, the government needs to implement clear policies that protect local communities, safeguard local ownership and ensure continuity of the projects long after the lifespan of the agreements has expired.

Esperança Chamba, cooperation officer at the National Agriculture Research Institute of Mozambique (IIAM) said the country has signed agreements with China to develop a joint agricultural research and training centre in Umbeluzi in the southern region, another agreement with Vietnam to boost rice production in Zambezia province in the central region and other agreements with India in the areas of science and technology transfer since last year.

“We signed an agreement with China to develop a joint research centre in Umbeluzi with the aim to introduce new seed varieties, demonstrate new cultivation approaches so that we can increase the production of cereals and raise the capacity of local communities, especially small scale farmers,” Chamba, also a part-time lecturer at Eduardo Mondlane University and a masters graduate in environmental management and development, told Daily IIJ.

Vietnam signed a 36-month contract agreemnt with Mozambique last year to develop rice production in the central province of Zambezia by introducing new varieties of rice, training local experts and introducing better irrigation systems in the province.

Chamba did not have the total value of the Vietnam agreement.

“Zambezia has the right weather conditions such as good rainfall patterns but farmers there have only been doing seasonal farming once every year. Now with this agreement with the Vietnamese it means that there will now be two farming seasons for rice through the use of irrigation systems. This will increase rice production in the area.”

In recent years the cost of food, particulalry cereals has shot up around the world creating a high demand in the commodities especially in the Asian economies like China where demand is higher than production.

This in turn has resulted in these countries increasingly turning their eyes onto developing countries like Mozambique in the Southern hemisphere, characterised by vast untapped natural resources such as land and minerals.

Many believe that poor sub-Saharan countries like Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi stand to gain from the rising global demand in cereals against shrinking production in the form of foreign currency, technology transfers, rapid infrastructure development of roads and irrigation systems, direct and indirect spinoffs to local communities and farmers.

For Mozambique, with an estimated population of about 21 million, more than 80 percent eke out a living from agriculture and substantial investments in the sector can bring major transformations in the livelhoods of many.

Agriculture is the mainstay of the former portuguese colony that gained independence in 1975.

It accounts for the biggest source of emplyment and generates close to 25 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The sector suffered the effects of a 16 year civil war that ended in 1992, that destabilised production and destroyed infrastructure, but new foreign money and donor driven funding support has seen production rebound and a rise in exports of cash crops such as sugar in recent years.

“We have to be careful on what is produced under the new agreements, we have to be careful on how much should be exported and how much should be kept. We do not really know what exactly is behind these agreements and policies but it is up to the government to monitor these policies and come up with measures that ensure sustainability and local partcipation and ownership.”

Last year China reportedly pledged a US$800 million investment for modernization of the Mozambican agricultural sector.

The plan aims to increase rice production five-fold, from the current 100,000 tons to 500,000, through the boosting of crop research centres and agricultural colleges throughout the country, with close to 100 Chinese experts already working in Mozambique, including some from the renowned Hunan Hybrid Rice Institute.

The construction of canal and irrigation networks is also planned, including a large-scale project connecting Lake Malawi, the continent’s second largest, in the neighbouring country, with the rivers and dams of Mozambique.

In June 2007, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding for around 3,000 Chinese farmers to settle in the provinces of Tete and Zambezi , with the aim of establishing cattle and arable farms throughout the valley.

“Yes developing countries like Mozambique stand to gain from these investments but the other thing is that will the local communities be able to use these new varieties of rice, soyabeans, maize and fertilisers? How much will these new seed varieties or fertilisers cost the local population? Will they be cost effective? When the lifespan of these projects expire will they be sustainable enough to go on? It is up to the government to ensure that these projects will be able to go on even after the donors or financiers pull out,” Chamba said.

The history of countries like China, Vietnam and India signing cereal agreements with Mozambique appears to be very young.

Chamba, who has been working in the area of agriculture for the past ten years, admits that it is only in the past few years that that there has been a notable rise in the interest shown by countries such as China to invest and partner with Mozambique.

“The cooperation desk which I head was only introduced last year and its purpose is to look into all these agreements and how they help us increase food production and capacity utilisation of land. The current interest we have were certainly not as high in the 80’s and 90’s.” she said.

India has also signed some agreements with the ministries of agriculture and science involving the exchange of fruit trees and cereal production, Chamba said.