Care mothers inviting the seminar participants to try the highly nutritive dishes they have learned within the FAO sub-programme

4 June 2019, Quelimane (Zambézia) – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MASA), on Monday (03.06.) started in the city of Quelimane, Zambézia Province, a series of provincial closing workshops of the sub-programme "Accelerate progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal 1c (MDG1c) in Mozambique", which has been financed by the European Union and the Government.

Since its beginning in 2013, the programme has been implemented by FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) aiming at improving food and nutrition security, in support of the achievement of MDG1c (to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger) in the country.

The objective of the workshops, which will take place in the five FAO sub-programme implementation provinces – Zambézia, Nampula, Tete, Sofala, and Manica – is to share with the main actors the experiences, results, lessons learned and best practices of the six year-implementation. FAO also intends to agree on the continuity of the activities by the stakeholders in order to guarantee the interventions´ sustainability.

At the event opening, Assistant FAO Representative for Programme, Cláudia Pereira, highlighted the close collaboration between Government, European Union and the three UN agencies in the fight against food insecurity and chronic malnutrition. Cláudia Pereira recalled that "the questions to raise shall especially focus on the changes achieved in the quality of life of the beneficiaries", to what the Head of the Department of Agriculture and Forestry at the Zambézia Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Food Security (DPASA), Pascoal Linda, added, amongst other results: "there is more availability of improved seeds and access to agricultural inputs. We therefore hope to capitalize the lessons learned to follow-up on the activities of FAO."

Government representatives from the sectors of agriculture, education and health, as well as civil society organizations and beneficiaries like Josina Nicuantia, from Gurué District, attended the event. Josina has produced improved seeds since 2017, when she participated in an FAO training in seed multiplication. She used to buy local seeds, still "they were overdue and the performance did not cover the expenditure". Today, she multiplies seeds on 3 hectares, selling part of the harvest in the community and saving another one to multiply in the following season. "I cannot abandon the seed production", she says.

MDG1c sub-programme aimed to contribute to the increase in agricultural production through the support to the seeds sector, the access to improved inputs and to agricultural extension services, post-harvest handling and storage, vaccination against Newcastle disease as well as nutrition education and home gardens.