The members of the FAO-supported Farmer Field School (FFS) Ticondane presented the work developed throughout this year

Approximately 130 guests on Friday attended a Field Day in Tsangano District, Tete Province, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Tete Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Food Security (DPASA) and the Tsangano District Service of Economic Activities (SDAE).

The event took place after two agricultural seasons during which a climate change adaptation strategy has been implemented by the project "Strengthening capacities of agricultural producers to cope with climate change for increased food security through the Farmer Field School approach", financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented by FAO, in support of the Government of Mozambique.

The members of the FAO-supported Farmer Field School (FFS) Ticondane presented the work developed throughout this year´s first season, allowing experience sharing among participants, while disseminating climate change adaptation practices developed during the group´s first learning cycle. DPASA representatives and agricultural extension officers of the SDAEs of Tsangano, Macanga, and Angónia, as well as facilitators and members of other FFSs of the three districts came together at the event.

Especially in the present context, in which Mozambique still suffers from the destructive impact of two cyclones, "it is urgent that producers, extension officers and decision makers are sensitized to mainstreaming climate change adaptation practices in agriculture, which is the main economic activity in rural zones", FAO project coordinator Pedro Luiz Simpson Jr. says. "Field days like this one are great opportunities for such sensitization, allowing wide dissemination of these practices."

One of the climate change adaptation practices presented by the members of Ticondane FFS during this Field Day in Tsangano was organic compound production, explained by Rosa Malaque. The 57-year old farmer has produced organic compound on her own farm for one year now. "You can already see the soil recovering its fertility, increasing production and productivity levels", she says. Before starting to apply organic compound, she used to produce 1 to 1,5 carts of maize per agricultural season – one cart corresponding to 1 ton – now she gets three, in a good season, she got five carts. In her 2-hectare farm Rosa now produces enough for family consumption and for sale, "thanks to the "[climate change] adaptation measures I have learnt at the FFS".

According to the Head of DPASA Agricultural Extension Department Fernando Assane, Tsangano is one of the districts showing most erosion problems, "in certain areas, people are even leaving their farms looking for other places to produce".

FAO is promoting climate change adaptation measures in four provinces: Tete, Manica, Sofala, and Gaza, while introducing sustainable agricultural production technologies towards zero hunger to be achieved by 2030.