What Makes Agricultural Intensification Profitable For Mozambican Smallholders? An Appraisal Of The Inputs Subsector And The 1996/97 Dner/Sg2000 Program
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BACKGROUND Mozambique, at peace since 1992 after three decades of civil strife, must increase agricultural production in order to reduce poverty and help feed its rapidly growing population. Intensification (increasing yields on land already under cultivation through the use of inputs such as chemical fertilizer, improved varieties of seed, and pesticides) is an important part of this strategy. The country's prime agricultural lands are already densely populated, and the presence of tsetse fly in the productive northern areas makes area expansion through the use of animal traction difficult. Current yields of major food and export crops in Mozambique are low in comparison with other African countries1, and the use of improved inputs is extremely limited. Mozambique uses 1.2 kg of NPK per hectare of arable land, compared to 13.9 kg/ha in Southern Africa, 20.1 kg/ha in SSA, and 87.1 kg/ha in the world (Bay and de Sousa 1990). Although many smallholders received improved varieties of seed through emergency programs during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the programs have now ended and farmers are replanting instead of purchasing new seed. OBJECTIVES AND METHODS This report summarizes an appraisal of input utilization and marketing in Mozambique, focusing on the following research questions(1) What are current smallholder yields for major commodities, and what is the potential for increasing yields through the use of improved technologies? (2) To what extent are improved technologies already being used by smallholders, and is the use of improved technologies profitable? (3) How are improved seeds, fertilizer and pesticides currently produced and distributed? and (4) What are the key constraints and opportunities for increasing the use of improved technologies by smallholders? A two-part approach was used to gather data. First, key informants and reports (from government agencies, NGOs, donors and international organizations) were consulted to obtain information on yields, levels of technology adoption, and production and distribution channels for seed, fertilizer and pesticides. Second, an in-depth analysis of one of the country's leading efforts to promote intensification was carried out. A survey of 223 smallholders participating in the Direcção Nacional de Extensão Rural/Sasakawa-Global 2000 program (DNER/SG2000) was undertaken to evaluate the financial and economic profitability of the improved maize technology package as applied by farmers in Manica and Nampula Provinces during 1996/97. 1 For example, smallholder maize yields range from 0.3-1.3 tons/ha: the average in Zimbabwe is 1.4 tons/ha and for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is 1.2 tons/ha. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS Our analysis of the DNER/SG program suggests that there is substantial scope for increasing farmer yields and agricultural production in Mozambique through the use of inputs such as improved seed varieties, fertilizer and pesticides. Sustained adoption of these inputs by farmers will depend on the successful implementation of policies and programs that increase the profitability of input use by (1) improving smallholder awareness of the benefits and correct use of inputs; (2) reducing the cost of inputs and ensuring their timely availability; and (3) reducing the cost of marketing commodity outputs and developing new markets for smallholder commodities.
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Paper provided by Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics in its series Food Security III Papers with number
11355.
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