From March 12-20, 2011, Global Agricultural Development Initiative co-chairs, Catherine Bertini & Dan Glickman, have embarked on a fact-finding trip to Tanzania and Mozambique to visit agricultural development and food security projects. They are blogging on their experiences, key observations, and questions that arise during their travels. Check out their itinerary. Stay tuned for more commentaries and you can also submit your questions here.
March 17-18 --- Nampula, Mozambique
After spending time in Tanzania, we headed to Nampula, a region in northeast Mozambique, to continue visits to USAID, WFP, and AGRA projects.
As many are aware, Mozambique is a country that has faced severe challenges – it was the location of a proxy conflict during the Cold War and then had a severe civil war for the better part of the last few decades. According to the Human Development Index, it is one of the five poorest countries in the world.
Although we only saw a few projects during our brief visit to Mozambique, our delegation was very impressed at people’s resilience and commitment to improving their livelihoods, especially in agriculture; the country’s agricultural potential; and the energy of the USAID, WFP, and AGRA teams working to support Mozambique’s agricultural sector growth. It seemed that donors – bilateral, international, and NGOs – were communicating and integrating agricultural programs to maximize sectoral impacts. Although most programs have received little funding for agricultural specific projects (Mozambique expects to receive just $10 million for Feed the Future in FY11), funds are being invested strategically, and having significant impact.
- Through stakeholder collaboration, the quality of commodities has improved, amount sold increased, and incomes of farmers increased – The advancement of American agriculture is often attributed to strong farmers’ groups. USAID, WorldVision, and WFP are working together to build and strengthen these kinds of groups in Mozambique, which have increased the quality of commodities grown and the incomes of its members. Fedamoz, the federation of farmers in Alto Molocue (located in the Nampula region of Mozambique), represents seven unions throughout the region, with each union comprising 6-8 associations. Fedamoz resembles a U.S. coop: about 1,200 farmers are members of the federation through local associations and they all pool their commodities together to negotiate contracts with larger traders, and receive better prices for crops. USAID’s P.L. 480 program provided WorldVision, an NGO, funding to offer management training skills to association members including financial accountability, the development of a management structure, and the democratic process to implement such a structure. WFP, has, in turn, not only provided a market for Fedamoz’s crops through Purchase for Progress, but has also provided support to build a warehouse for the federation. Profits for association farmers have increased significantly since they joined the association. It is our impression that this model --- with interventions at various points from USAID, World Food Programme, and local NGOs --- could be both scaled up and replicated elsewhere and have transformational results.
- Modest investments in local businesses can support business expansion and offer opportunities for increased farm and non-farm employment – We observed opportunities for expansion of the livestock and poultry industry in both Mozambique and Tanzania. One emerging public-private partnership has taken advantage of this gap in the market. New Horizon Poultry Agribusiness, which is privately managed but receives support from USAID and USDA, produces a significant amount of chickens for the Nampula region, and other parts of Mozambique. It’s operations are providing opportunities to local farmers and other persons in a number of ways: (1) it employs over 180 persons in-house, (2) it works with 80 smallholder producers in the production of chickens, (3) it buys feed from approximately 9,000 smallholders in the area. This kind of business model --- which creates markets through contract farming and also opportunities for non-farm employment --- could be replicated in other emerging agricultural industries.
- The potential for agricultural growth in Mozambique is significant – Only 16.5% of Mozambique’s arable land is currently in use. The resources currently being put into agriculture – by bilateral donors, international organizations, and NGOs – are being coordinated and invested strategically to achieve high impacts.
There were other rich observations and lessons learned through visits to projects hosted by WFP, AGRA, and USAID that we will elaborate on more fully in our final trip report.
Key Questions
- Government policies on intellectual property rights and reproduction, infrastructure, and import controls seriously hinder private sector investment - As many groups already acknowledge, it is difficult to make progress without policy change at the national level. The U.S. embassy is trying to advance some reforms in Mozambique through its MCC compact, but we recommend further investigation and then investment into effective interventions that can spur change – whether it be interventions at the national/local level, or mechanisms that could encourage change by bilateral donors, international organizations, and NGOs.
- Further research on appropriate land tenure systems and reform are needed – Although land tenure reform is needed, it was re-affirmed to us through conversations in Mozambique that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach land tenure --- granting land titles and improving zoning regulations may be a more feasible first step in some countries, while private ownership should be supported in others. As with many things in agriculture, land ownership reform strategies should be designed to take into account local conditions, constraints, and opportunities.
Continue to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Your comments and questions are welcome! Please submit them here.
Comments