7.000 farmers shall benefit from the e-voucher programme

6 June 2019, Chimoio (Manica) – Until the end of June approximately 7.000 farmers shall benefit from the e-voucher programme, which has been reopened in response to the emergency situation in central Mozambique. The intervention is financed by the European Union and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) within its sub-programme "Accelerate progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal 1c (MDG1c) in Mozambique", in support of the Government.

This action of FAO comes after cyclone Idai in March swept through the central region of Mozambique with major impact in the provinces of Manica and Sofala, decimating livelihoods and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Approximately 800.000 hectares of crops have been damaged, over 400.000 people displaced and about 1 million and 800 thousand people in need of assistance. The objective of this intervention is to support affected farmers with seeds and tools in order for them to be able to resume with food production.

In this emergency response intervention, the programme contributes with 2.300 meticais per beneficiary, allowing the farmer to acquire inputs for free, using their electronic card (e-voucher). The beneficiaries are farmers from the districts of Nhamatanda (Sofala Provicne) as well as Gondola, Macate, Sussundenga, and Vanduzi (Manica Province), who have been affected by Idai and have not received any support of this kind.

Throughout its implementation within the FAO MDG1c sub-programme, the e e-voucher supported a total of 24.000 subsistance and emergent farmers, on a co-payment basis, through an agro-dealer network in the provinces of Manica, Sofala, Zambézia, and Nampula. This emergency response action, in which farmers receive inputs at zero cost, shows the flexibility and adaptability of this mechanism in diferent contexts.