Around thousands of farmers have reinvented agricultural practices in compliance with agroecological principles to respond simultaneously to climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, without reducing production in villages in the interior of Manica, central Mozambique where poverty is relentless, and hunger is lurking.

FAO, along with the local organization "Fungaizano" , have been working with farmers to develop and implement conservation techniques in their crop fields, including land rotation, crop management, composting, and the use of organic pesticides, as part of the advices given to resist climate change. However, with the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have implemented several measurement campaigns to mitigate the impact of the pandemic by reducing the clusters in the vegetable gardens (machambas) and reorienting themselves to work in small groups to prevent the pandemic.

"Fungaizano" association is part of the schools’ network in Machamba do Camponês (EMC). This is an initiative of FAO aimed to support the farmers by integrating knowledge and improved practices for rain-fed agriculture in rural areas to produce and ensure food and nutritional security.

FAO is using the network of 600 schools, covering more than 18 000 farmers in six provinces of the country, to transmit COVID-19 prevention messages and ensure that the pandemic  is not a threat to food production within rural communities. By maintaining farmers' protection and food production, FAO will focus its support on the distribution of vegetable and cereal seeds, so that the population has a guaranteed source of food for the coming times.