President Calls for More Irrigation

15 May 2011

Maputo — The weakest point faced by Mozambican peasant farmers in the drive to increase production and productivity is that they still depend on rainfall, even when their fields are near permanent watercourses, said President Armando Guebuza on Saturday.

He was speaking at a rally in the Mugeba administrative post, in Mocuba district, in the central province of Zambezia, shortly after visiting fields farmed by the peasant association “Anawiwanana”.

Like the great majority of Mozambican peasants, this association depends entirely on rainfall for the water its crops need. Yet there is a river just a couple of kilometres from their fields.

Guebuza pointed out that exclusive dependence on rain-fed agriculture seriously compromises the income of peasant farmers. “Production depends on the rains – but there’s a river there all year round”, he said. “We do not make due use of the water we have almost everywhere. If we were to use this resource to the full, we would have two or three more harvests in a single year”.

Guebuza was told that the association does not have the equipment to pump water and irrigate its fields – but he was sure the members of “Anawiwanana” would find ways of overcoming this problem.

“The Association has no way of pumping the water. It’s a challenge”, he said. “But I think the members of this association will solve their problem by asking for financial support”.

The government has embarked on a “green revolution” seeking to raise production dramatically, and to advance from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture. Increasing the area under irrigation is a cornerstone of this policy.

Guebuza declared that the objective is to transform Mozambique into a granary, not only to feed its own citizens, but to sell surpluses to countries facing food deficits.

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