The country is going through a political, economic and social crisis. The current debt crisis is a threat for a sound economic and political future of Mozambique and comes together with the resurgence of conflict between the opposition party and former insurgent force Renamo, which has never fully disarmed. This has particularly affected supply of goods, including food and seeds, to the north of the country.

In addition, the country has been hit by a severe drought crisis in 2016, with an estimate of 1.5 Million people facing food insecurity.

Agriculture is still the economic foundation of Mozambique. It employs over 80 percent of the economically active population in Mozambique and constitutes 25% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2014. Economic development and poverty alleviation are therefore highly dependent on agricultural growth.

In this scenario, horticulture is of high strategic relevance. Vegetables are highly nutritious and highly marketable mostly to urban and semi-urban consumers with comparatively higher purchasing power. It requires relatively low capital and allows for several cycles of production per year.

Demand for vegetables increases every year along the Nacala corridor in northern Mozambique. Proximity to the Nacala Corridor provides farmers with access to infrastructure and markets for the commercialization of their produce.

The overall goal is to increase the annual net income of 10,000 semi-commercial and 15,000 subsistence men and women smallholders, by 30% compared to the baseline (~120USD/year and ~60USD/year respectively).

• 25,000 men and women smallholders of which 10,000 are semi-commercial smallholders (5,000 additional to the beneficiaries reached in Phase 1) and a minimum of 15,000 additional subsistence smallholders producing horticultural products for local markets
  
• Suppliers of agriculture inputs (seed, agriculture and micro-irrigation equipment).
  
• Vegetable and horticulture retailers or buyers.

1 (Inputs & Practices): Productivity of horticultural smallholders in the Nacala Corridor in Northern Mozam-bique is increased. 

2 (Irrigation): Horticultural Smallholders in the Nacala Corridor in Northern Mozambique increased their area under irrigation. 

3 (Competitiveness): Market responsiveness and competitiveness of the horti-cultural sector in Northern Mozambique is increased.

Risultati principali attesi:  

1: 1.1 New/improved seeds (imported) made available to smallholders through the private sector; 1.2 Domestic produced quality seeds made available to smallholders from local seed producers; 1.3 Innovative technologies in horticultural production are transferred from business to business (B2B) and adopted by the private sector providing new/improved inputs to smallholders; 1.4 Good agricultural practices (GAP) are disseminated to private companies and public institutions and applied by horticultural smallholders.

2: 2.1 Community-based irrigation solutions are made available to horticultural smallholders; 2.2 Awareness is raised on affordable irrigation solutions among relevant stakeholders in Northern Mozambique; 2.3 Affordable farm-based irrigation systems are made available to smallholders.

3: 3.1 Market Linkages of horticultural smallholders, buyers, consolidators and logistic operators are improved and utilized; 3.2 New/improved basic processing introduced and applied; 3.3 Market intelligence on horticultural sector in Northern Mozambique is utilized by relevant stakeholders to improve sector competitiveness.

Risultati fasi precedenti:  

Benefit Outreach of 5,304 farmers (target 4,000) of which 22.3% women (target 30%) and income increase of 130 USD/farmer/year (target 300 USD in 2014) across all interventions. Interventions positively contributed to diminish the seasonality of production through new varieties, mini-tunnels and irrigation solutions.

Supported policy work for the simplification of the import processes for vegetable seeds in Mozambique and started local reproduction with private sector partners.

More time and effort are needed, in order to ensure appropriate introduction and adoption of new varieties, scale up of successful interventions and introduction of new water capture and harvesting techniques for water availability.

The project will continue its emphasis on women targeted economic activities such as orchard plantation and small animal rearing. The latter will also contribute to the introduction of organic manuring.

More focus will be laid on resilience against weather shocks and disasters while supplementing the income earned by the smallholders and avoiding hunger pockets. Two of the new value chains to be introduced for that purpose and which already have a good track record in the North of Mozambique as well as other sub-tropical parts of the globe are cassava and beans.

INOVAGRO II (SDC project); IIAM (Mozambique Agricultural Research Institute); Ministry of Agriculture; local government; USAID projects in horticulture, SIDA project in Niassa, local cooperatives for scale up (MUNDUKIDE in Cabo Delgado), GAIN (Global Alliance for Nutrition) and the National Seed Dialogue Platform.

Fase 2 02.01.2017 - 31.12.2021   (Completed)