Profiles: Agriculture

Mozambican agriculture is characterized by smallholdings. The average size of a holding is 1.24 ha and the predominant farming system is based on the production of cereals and tubers on land that is generally reliant on rain as the principal source of water. Of the 3.6 million families in Mozambique, 87% are dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods; 98% of these families have no formal land titles.

These smallholdings are farmed using manual labour and hand tools with only minimal use of chemical inputs, animal traction, farm machinery and more sophisticated tools. This type of farming system imposes physical limits on the area that can be cultivated and the yields that can be generated; a natural limit is therefore also imposed on the total quantity of food that can be produced for self consumption and/or for sale.

Over 80% of the total area of cultivated land is used for the production of staple food crops; maize and cassava are the staples produced by the overwhelming majority of holdings. Cereals (maize, sorghum, rice and millet) account for 46% of total area cultivated, cassava for 17%, beans for 11% and oilseeds for 9%.