On Monday (18), the Cereals Institute of Mozambique (ICM) began monitoring the agricultural marketing process in the provinces of the North, Center and South, with the exception of the Maputo metropolitan area.
According to the newspaper Noticias, quoting a statement from the institution, the work which began in the province of Nampula will run until next month, with the aim of assessing the impact of the actions carried out to boost agriculture in order to improve the income of producers in the family sector. The provinces covered by the monitoring are Niassa, Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambézia, Tete, Manica, Sofala, Gaza and Inhambane.
The document reveals that in the current campaign, Mozambique expects to sell another 17 million tons of various products. The delegation hopes to visit the main agricultural marketing and processing centers, interact with those involved in the process and check out support infrastructures such as warehouses, silos and industries.
The note also states that the team will also monitor the impact of the instruments recently approved by the government to boost agri-business, namely the creation of the Management Committees, Caderneta and the Revolving Fund for Agricultural Marketing (FRCA) and carry out visits to local fairs and markets. “In fact, agricultural marketing plays an important role in the national economy, constituting one of the main sources of income for the population in rural areas, a mechanism for linking markets and an instrument that stimulates increased production and competitiveness in the agricultural sector.”
The statement adds that, in this context, the ICM’s mission is to intervene as a marketing agent of “last resource” to ensure the disposal of production, with the aim of guaranteeing strategic reserves for food security and contributing to price stabilization. In order to achieve this goal, the institution has been carrying out strategic actions concentrated mainly in the central and northern areas of the country, bearing in mind that the south is less productive.
The monitoring work should consist of courtesy meetings with local authorities, field visits to marketing centers and agro-processing units, dialogue with producers and stakeholders, as well as talks with tenants of the property under the institution’s management.
