Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has recommended the expansion of rural extension, strengthening the value chain of the food industry, and diversifying agricultural production.
He also urged authorities in the central province of Manica that they consolidate agricultural mechanisation in the public and private sectors to take the best advantage of the agro-ecological conditions of this fertile area.
He said that, by the end of the first half of this year, there were 177 rural extensionists in Manica, covering 60,896 producers, which was an increase of 3.4 per cent on the same period last year. But with the government’s flagship agricultural programme, “Sustenta”, the number of extensionists “should increase exponentially”.
Sustenta is intended to develop agricultural value chains. After initial pilot projects in ten districts in Nampula and Zambezia provinces, the programme is now being expanded to cover the entire country.
“But we also need to diversify the economy”, Nyusi said. “We cannot have just agriculture, although this can be the basis for turning Manica into a granary for the country and the region. We recommend economic diversification, to reduce the province’s reliance on a single sector”.
The President stressed the need to empower other sectors, such as tourism, small scale fisheries and mining.
Manica, said Nyusi, should look to place its production in other markets, to reduce gradually its dependence on the neighbouring countries, some of which “are experiencing an acute economic recession”.
Nyusi added that he was leaving Manica “with the hope that, despite the adversities, this province has great prospects for economic growth”.
