Maputo — Chimoio (Mozambique), 16 Mar (AIM) – About 6,000 people are on the verge of a severe food crisis over the next four months, as result of poor yields recorded in the first half of the farming season (2020/21) in Tambara district, in the central Mozambican province of Manica.
The director of the District Economic Activities Service, Fernando Kingstone, said that excessive rain has washed away extensive farmed areas where crops had been planted along the banks of the main rivers in the region.
The district, he said, had planned to harvest 80,160 tonnes of several crops grown on 50,800 hectares, but the size of the area will certainly reduce because of the rains that fell between December and February, casting uncertainty on farmers’ harvest expectations.
But there is a beacon of hope as the district will harvest sesame which will serve as an alternative as the money obtained from the sales will help smallholders to purchase other seeds. He said the households are preparing for the next farming season and the government with its partners is working to provide seeds and other assistance in the food chain.
“The households are working on low lying areas to expand the cultivated land for the second planting season. They will resort to motor-pump and the opening of boreholes for the irrigation of the fields. For the next farming season, we shall receive 40 tonnes of seeds, mainly maize, pulses and vegetables,” he said.