Mudanças nos Padrões dos Rendimentos de Agregados Familiares Rurais em Moçambique de 1996 a 2002 e suas Implicações para a Contribuição da Agricultura para a Redução da Pobreza

The challenge that faces Mozambique’s government is to design poverty reduction and rural development strategies that deliver three-dimensional growth: rapid growth to reduce poverty incidence quickly, sustainable growth to ensure that people permanently escape poverty, and broad-based growth to ensure that as many families as possible benefit from it. The specific objectives of this paper are: 1. To compare the level, sources, and distribution of rural household incomes in 1995-96 and 2001-02. To achieve this objective, the paper answers questions such as how have rural incomes changed over the six year period; how much have the poorest of the poor benefited; and have rural incomes grown evenly over the whole country or have some areas grown faster than others? 2. To compare the level and composition of agricultural income in 1995-96 and 2001-02. The paper considers the importance of agriculture relative to non-farm activities as a source of rural income, and the mix of agricultural activities, for different income groups. 3. To identify priorities for enhancing agriculture’s contribution to rural economic growth and poverty reduction in the medium term.