Project launch in Maputo

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Thursday (07.07) launched the project "Strengthening capacities of agricultural producers to cope with climate change for increased food security through the Farmer Field School approach" in Maputo.

The 4-year project, which will be implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Safety (MASA), the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development (MITADER), the Institute of Agricultural Research of Mozambique (IIAM) and the Mozambique National Meteorology Institute (INAM), will cover 15 districts in the provinces of Gaza, Sofala, Manica and Tete, and can benefit round 90.000 families in a first phase.

FAO's Chief Technical Advisor for the project, Pedro Simpson, highlights that "the project is a way of supporting the country in the Government's plans and priorities implementation". According to Simpson, "the communities included will receive support to identify and implement activities that shall make them more resilient to the effects of climate change such as protracted droughts.

With a budget of approximately $36 million, of which$9 million have been provided by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the project aims to increase the capacity of the agricultural and pastoral sectors to cope with climate change by up scaling farmers' adoption of climate change adaptation (CCA) technologies and practices through a network of already established Farmer Field Schools.

The Vice-Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Luísa Meque, called for the "project managers to be flexible with the introduction and adaptation of accessible and appropriated technologies according to the context of Mozambican farmers in order to help with mitigation and adaptation to the impact of climate change in the agricultural sector".

About 70% of the Mozambican population depends on agricultural activities. From those, 80% lives in rural areas, depending on natural resources, being thus vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Because of that, rainy seasons have become more unpredictable, hampering the farmers' capacity to manage crop cycles.

For the last months, Mozambique has been affected by a severe drought, contributing to an increase in the number of food-insecure families. According to the Head of INAM's Planning and Research Department, Jonas Zucule, "due to climate change, such events, including heat waves, floods and tropical cyclones tend to aggravate, therefore the delivery and dissemination of climate-related services, together with local knowledge, can help local communities to become more resilient to climate change".

This project is aligned with the policies of the Mozambican Government and is based on the strategic tools of the Government´s 5-Year Programme (2015-2019).