Mozambique: Rice production may grow by 15% in 2021/22 campaign

The Government advances that it is expanding areas with potential for rice production through public-private partnerships, in the 2021/22 agrarian campaign, which involved around 150,000 families in rice production. As targets for the current campaign, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Celso Correia, said he expected rice production of around 239 thousand tons, corresponding to an increase of 15%. Through the SUSTENTA project, the minister says that “the country is expected to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production by 2030, through the convergence of the adoption of policies to intensify agricultural production, as well as the increase in the use of inputs agricultural areas, production areas and favorable rainfall.” In the last and recent campaign, the province of Gaza increased its cultivation area by about 5 thousand hectares and the average yield of rice cultivation rose to 6 ton/ha, exceeding the national average of 1 ton/ha. 7,500 jobs were generated ...