Farmers received agricultural kits from FAO containing seeds of maize and beans & tools (hoe and machete)

Mozambique is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change: while drought mainly affects the southern part of the country, northern and central regions have suffered a series of cyclical heavy rains over the past few years that have caused widespread flooding and threatened rural livelihoods.

One month ago Tropical Cyclone Idai hit three Southern African countries, including Mozambique where hundreds died and most of the central region's cereal crops were wiped out just before the harvest had been due to begin.

Across the central provinces of Manica, Sofala and Zambezia, as well as some parts of the southern province of Inhambane, the cyclone's landfall following earlier heavy rains led to widespread flooding. Dried-out cornhusks track the route of strong winds that proved to be the ruin of farmers who lost everything. Split trees and others torn up by the roots now form the landscape of some districts in Manica province.

Elisa Saize is a farmer from Matarara, in Manica province. With farmland in the lower reaches of the nearest river, she lost all of her maize production in the floods. She has a family of eight people and depends on agriculture to survive, consuming most of her produce and selling the rest to afford other necessities. After receiving maize and bean seeds from FAO, funded by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), she hopes to be able to see some results in the smaller, second agricultural season in July-August.

João Bomero lives in Nhachedzia, in the district of Macate, which was also badly affected by the cyclone. After the floods he lost five hectares' worth of maize, sesame, beans and fruit trees.

"The gale destroyed the whole farm", he says. "It started on the Thursday night and when I went out the next day to check the land, there was nothing left".

João used to sell his produce in the city centre, mostly fruit, but now he has lost everything on the eve of the harvest. "The river filled up a lot. All the lowlands were lost." After receiving seeds from FAO he expects to revive his farm: "I will have to restore the land first to plant these seeds, because the floods destroyed the soil."

Maize is a staple crop in Mozambique, but production is now expected to decline in 2019 from last year's above-average output, although good harvests in the north could compensate for a portion of the losses and prevent a steeper decline.

Still in Manica, in the locality of Sambanha, farmers in the highlands are facing a new phenomenon: after the floods, the farmland is cracked. The local regulator, Chimica Sambanha, confirms that the soil has already changed: "On the farms there is only sand. I don´t know where this land came from. When it dries, it starts to crack. I don't know if we will be able to sow when the time comes, whether we are going to produce or not, I really do not know. The maize we were expecting to harvest in from March to April smells very bad, it's rotten."

Carlota Inácio, 40, is married to the community leader of Hanje. The heavy rains and floods also damaged her farmland. "All the maize was washed away. The fruit trees were ripped out of the ground," she says.

She has worked in agriculture for more than twenty years, but has never seen rain pull crops up by the roots that way. "I have three hectares of farmland. I could not recover anything," she says regretfully. "We didn't have time to save seeds or food. Our hopes were all in the loose crops." She must now look for an area that can be planted with the seeds she has received from FAO, as the lowlands can no longer be used.

Before the storm hit, around half of Mozambique's rural families had some maize, cassava and bean reserves, but the flooding ruined much of these for both food and seed purposes. Prior to the current disaster, 1.8 million people in Mozambique were already severely food insecure.

The floods are expected to result in an increased prevalence and severity of food insecurity in the central provinces, especially for households that have lost crops and livestock. This would in turn reduce both their food supplies and their income opportunities from crop sales, worsening an already critical situation. FAO is currently implementing emergency livelihood interventions to support rural and coastal communities, in order to restore productive capacities and thereby food security as soon as possible.