The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), supported by the European Union Food Facility (EUFF), launched a two-year project to increase food production in Mozambique through improving seed quality, increasing seed quantity and providing smallholder farmers with seeds as well as access to subsidized fertilizers and tools for their production of staple crops such as maize, beans and sunflower.
28 December 2011: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), with the support of the EU Food Facility (EUFF), has launched a two-year programme to assist in strengthening the Mozambican seed sector, in order to increase agricultural output and counter rising food prices. Currently, only 10 percent of the country’s arable land is being utilized, and the country suffers from an annual food deficit of one million tons.
The EUFF, launched in 2008 to respond to rapidly rising hunger as a consequence of high food prices and the global economic crisis, has committed EUR7.3 million to the project in Mozambique, under which both seed quality and quantity are to be improved. The programme aims to ensure that 15 percent of Mozambique’s smallholder farmers will be able to access improved seeds in five to six years.
FAO has collaborated with 15 seed companies and 1,000 small-scale seed growers to produce an estimated 3,500 tons of seed for staple crops such as maize, rice, beans and sunflower. The project also has undertaken to rehabilitate five seed laboratories. In addition, it will aim train approximately 300 staff from the agricultural ministry, to help improve the government’s ability to control the quality of seed available commercially. Direct support also has been given to smallholder farmers in order to increase crop yields, including by providing an estimated 1,000 tons of maize and rice seeds to 25,000 farmers, and subsidizing fertilizers and other tools for two consecutive seasons. [FAO Press Release] [UN Press Release] [EUFF Webpage]