Field Day on CA in Barué, Manica Province

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in coordination with the National Cooperative Business Association - CLUSA and partners, organized a Conference on Conservation Agriculture (CA) to reflect on how to rapidly expand the adoption of this practice to the central and north zones of the country.

Currently, more than 20,000 farmers in arid and semi-arid areas in the provinces of Tete, Manica and Sofala, in the center of the country, and Gaza, in the south, are using CA techniques in their fields, in an experiment which is intended to be replicated and expanded to more areas in the central and northern Mozambique.
These data were announced during the Conservation Agriculture Conference, which took place this Friday, in Chimoio, in Manica province.

Conservation agriculture consists of a set of practices such as seeding in holes, mechanized agriculture, crop rotation and mulch, which allow the management of agricultural soil with the least possible change in its composition, structure and natural biodiversity, increasing the productivity of sustainable way.

The conference, which was attended by researchers, Government partners, the private sector and non-governmental organizations, was held within the framework of the FAO regional project for Strengthening Coordination, Scaling up and Governance of Conservation Agriculture in Southern Africa, funded by the Kingdom of Norway.

The project was created to facilitate the review and development of policies and mechanisms for this practice, with an emphasis on sustainable production, resilience to climate change and environmental conservation in agriculture.

FAO Program Officer, José Matsinhe, considers that these actions aim "to help raise awareness among the actors involved so that the country can achieve the goals established at the level of the African Union, which proposes that, by 2025, at least 25 million hectares in Africa are under climate-smart agricultural practices", as defined in the 2014 Malabo declaration with the participation of Mozambique.

Official data indicate that in Mozambique 66% of the population lives in rural areas and, of this population, 90% depends on agriculture. Due to climate change and the effects of natural disasters in Mozambique, several farmers, mostly dependent on subsistence agriculture, are exposed to the negative effects of climate change, increasing their vulnerability and putting them in a situation of food insecurity.

The FAO Program Officer states that "one of the advantages of conservation agriculture is the preservation or restoration of the characteristics of the soil itself, making it more productive, which contributes to building the resilience of small farmers and guarantees them food security and nutritional and decent livelihoods".

FAO's regional project aims to support the scaling-up of the transformation from current low-productivity and non-climate-resilient conventional production systems to sustainable, high-yield conservation agriculture approaches, through better coordination with partners, strengthening partnerships and promote greater knowledge sharing.

The Organization considers that, due to agricultural production systems not resilient to climate change, there has been an increase in the number of people suffering from food and nutrition insecurity, as well as the loss of livelihoods in southern Africa.