US Ambassador to the UN Agencies in Rome visits projects in Manica
Short before he left Mozambique, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations agencies based in Rome, David Lane, described the collaboration between the three Rome-based UN agencies in the country as "impressive".
This was at the end of a five-day visit to Manica province, in central Mozambique, where he met farmers and visited agribusinesses as well as projects from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the three UN agencies – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
Ambassador Lane used the trip to fully understand the cooperation between the United States and the UN agencies in supporting smallholder farmers and local agribusinesses in the Southern African country. The Ambassador also used the visit to get to know how his country and the UN work with the Government of Mozambique in fostering food and nutrition security and promoting agricultural development in the country.
Ambassador Lane was accompanied by the respective Country Representatives of the three agencies in Mozambique namely Castro Camarada (FAO), Custódio Mucavel (IFAD) and Abdoulaye Baldé (WFP) as well as journalists from Mozambique, Ethiopia, Namibia, Rwanda, Swaziland and Tanzania.
FAO Representative, Castro Camarada, said he hoped that "the projects chosen to show to the mission have reflected the way the three agencies collaborate in food and nutrition security programs". Similarly for WFP Country Director, Abdoulaye Baldé, Lane’s trip "was a good opportunity to show the agencies’ work in promoting food and nutrition security in Mozambique".
Boosting agricultural productivity
The delegation’s first port of call on 8 December was the Regional Seed Laboratory in Manica’s capital, Chimoio, which was refurbished by FAO’s sub-program "Accelerating the Progress Towards the Achievement of MDG1c in Mozambique" (MDG1c). FAO supplied new equipment for seed certification and trained its technicians in 2012.
In a country where 91 percent of the seeds are obtained on the informal market, "it is crucial to test their quality which is normally rather low", the Director of the laboratory, Manuel Bacicolo, said during the visit of the delegation. "The control that is done in this laboratory guarantees a germination power of the seeds that meets international standards", FAO’s sub-program Coordinator, Walter de Oliveira, added. The five-year sub-program (2013-2018) is financed by the European Union and the Government of Mozambique and jointly implemented by FAO, IFAD and WFP. The seeds distributed by FAO in the region within the voucher component of MDG1c are all tested here.
Promoting food security
Still today, 24 percent of all Mozambican households suffer from chronic food insecurity and 43 percent of all Mozambican children under the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition. The delegation on day 2 visited Health Centre 1º de Maio, one of over 120 health units where WFP, with financial assistance from USAID, has been able to distribute food supplements since March 2014.
On the same day, the group visited Lucas Mujuju, a farmer who produces soy milk and yoghurt. Mujuju started his business in a shed in Chimoio. Meanwhile, with support from USAID, he is building his own factory with his own label: Só Soja. Mujuju said he is moving to the new site so as "to meet hygiene norms necessary to sell in big quantities, for instance, for supermarkets". Another company, Optima Industrial, has also managed to grow thanks to the support from USAID. It now produces energetic food supplements for families suffering from food insecurity, schools, shops and organizations like WFP.
The delegation on Tuesday also visited Vanduzi Agribusiness Service Centre, a private company supported by USAID’s AgriFuturo. This program intends to turn agribusinesses into solid enterprises in the field of input supply and related services in order to foster the production of smallholder farmers and improve the quality of their products.
Supporting emerging businesses
The group had a chance to interact with Tomé Zacarias of Mutocoma village, in Gondola district, who in 2002 started an aquaculture enterprise. Together with his wife and children, Zacarias has since built five fishponds. He is one of more than 150 farmers who are participating in the IFAD-supported Project for the Promotion of Small Scale Aquaculture, PROAQUA. Zacarias now not only feeds his family, he also sells a part of his production. "Fish farming helps me diversify my production and even if the field harvest is poor, I can feed my family", he said with pride. This meets Ambassador Lane’s vision: "Farmers shall not only feed their families but also sell their produce. By doing that, they will guarantee income that allows them to educate their children and improve their lives."
Enhancing livelihoods
One of the clearest examples of collaboration between the three Rome-based UN agencies is the sub-program MDG1c. On the final lap of the tour, Lane’s delegation visited the Farmer Field School (FFS) 'Kubakema Kurima' where Timóteo Tapera, the school’s facilitator, introduced the visitors to the FFS method. This is an alternative approach that improves the farmers’ capacity to analyze their own production and identify the main difficulties by testing possible solutions in the field and adopting the most adequate practices and technologies. For Castro Camarada "the FFS method is a participatory approach with high potential of bringing transformation aiming at the improvement of the production systems". Tapera added: "The way the community learns at the FFS helps us develop as farmers. With new farming techniques and high quality seeds, we produce more in smaller plots of land.”
At the end of the final day, the delegation visited a farmer family who is now using one of the humidity and vermin-proof silos FAO is supporting in the region. The low-cost silos can hold a ton of maize and greatly reduce the risk of post-harvest losses. Before leaving Manica, Ambassador David Lane said about these silos: "What we saw there is a transformative innovation. A low-cost storage method for agricultural products which is that effective is doubtless a transformative innovation."