Presented at the Go to Market Mozambique Agri-Food Forum, the National Forest Incubation Programme (INAGRO) aims to train young people within commercial farming operations and help them establish their own agricultural businesses. The programme has one operational unit in Nhamatanda, Sofala province, and five new partnerships under negotiation. Its central challenge is demonstrating that the model can scale without sacrificing viability.
Mozambique spent more than one billion dollars importing rice, wheat and cooking oil in 2025. At the Go to Market Mozambique Agri-Food Forum, held in Maputo on 30 July, Mozambican officials argued that cooperation with Portugal — which has recorded advances in agri-food production — should encompass technology transfer, investment and the strengthening of productive capacity in Mozambique.
It was in this context that INAGRO put forward a concrete proposal: to train agricultural entrepreneurs within farms already integrated into the market. The model is grounded in an experience developed over four years in Nhamatanda, Sofala province.
Over approximately 12 months, young participants work on their own plots within a commercial farming operation. They cultivate crops, monitor costs, take part in sales and learn how the business functions along the value chain through direct contact with agro-industries and other operators in the region.
The objective is that, by the end of the incubation period, participants will have acquired practical experience, accumulated some capital and built the conditions necessary to start an independent enterprise. The model seeks to address a persistent difficulty in Mozambican agriculture: a young person may master cultivation techniques yet still lack reliable access to water, inputs, transport, buyers or financing.
To overcome these constraints, INAGRO seeks to consolidate those conditions around an anchor company — an established farm or agricultural business that hosts the incubator and facilitates participants' integration into the commercial chain.
The Association of Young Farmers of Portugal (AJAP) joined the programme in 2025, in partnership with HUB, which is responsible for the model. The association's director-general, Firmino Cordeiro, confirmed the experience in Nhamatanda and identified the limited practical experience of many graduates from agricultural schools as one of the reasons for prioritising extended incubation periods.
In April 2026, following the project's presentation to a coordination group comprising cooperation partners and government representatives, the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries (MAAP) — through the Directorate of Cooperation and Investment (DCI) and the National Directorate of Forestry and Wildlife (DNFFB) — established a public-private partnership (PPP) with the HUB-AJAP consortium to implement "INAGRO – National Programme for the Incubation of Young People in Agroforestry Systems", based on the original model.
The partnership was subsequently presented at the EU Global Gateway Forum to financial and development institutions.
Among those leading the project is Marco Machado, a Portuguese economist and agro-entrepreneur who has worked in rural development and agriculture in Mozambique since 2001. He advises the government, cooperation agencies and agricultural and agro-industrial companies, and founded the Mozambican office of the international organisation iDE, which he directed for five years.
According to Marco Machado, five new partnerships are currently under negotiation in the southern, central and northern regions of the country. All follow the same principle: establishing the incubator alongside an already operational agricultural business.
A school embedded in the value chain
INAGRO envisages farms of approximately 30 hectares, each capable of incubating more than 50 young people per year. Each participant is to receive a plot of 2,500 square metres and training over 12 months.
Planned activities, within an agroforestry model, include the cultivation of rice, maize, beans, cassava and banana, combined with tree planting, poultry farming, beekeeping and aquaculture. The diversification is intended to generate revenue across different periods, improve the use of available resources and reduce dependence on a single crop.
But the economic challenge does not end at production. It is necessary to aggregate volumes, preserve and process products, and find buyers at prices that cover costs and make the activity economically viable. This is the point at which the project converges with the diagnosis presented during the forum.
Mozambique has land and millions of smallholder farms, but a competitive value chain requires access to water, services, storage, processing and predictable markets. In 2025, rice imports alone cost the country 359.1 million dollars.
Agro-entrepreneurship
INAGRO includes rice among its target crops, but the projected scale alone would not be sufficient to materially alter the import bill. The programme's potential contribution lies primarily in testing a way of organising new producers around established businesses and buyers.
In the pitch, the promoters point to yields of five tonnes of maize per hectare, four tonnes of rice and 2.5 tonnes of beans, comparing these with reference figures of one tonne, one tonne and 0.6 tonnes respectively for subsistence farmers.
The figures suggest potential gains associated with technical assistance, the adoption of better agricultural practices and the use of production technologies. However, the documentation does not identify the agricultural seasons, sample size or methodology used in the comparisons, meaning the data alone do not allow a determination of whether these productivity levels can be replicated in future incubators.
Several technical partners have already joined the initiative, including Hollard, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Zambezi Valley Development Agency (ADVZ), the Moz Youth Foundation and the Perma Caju Foundation. The project also counts technology partners, including DEV and Nowledge, which, according to the promoters, already deploy artificial intelligence agents to provide technical assistance to young people during and after the incubation period.
Financing begins when training ends
The graduation of young participants raises a second question: where can capital be found to allow them to continue producing independently? The plan provides for business development support and estimates financing needs of between 20,000 and 50,000 dollars per enterprise.
The promoters propose the creation of an investment vehicle to finance this phase, but the necessary resources have yet to be mobilised. The figures presented therefore correspond to estimated needs rather than financing already in place.
To scale the model, the promoters calculate that an investment of approximately 300,000 dollars per unit would be required — or six million dollars to establish a network of 20 incubators over five years.
The presentation projects an annual operating result of at least 85,000 dollars per unit and a payback period of four to five years. These estimates will, however, need to be tested against the actual costs of each location, particularly those associated with water, energy, logistics and technical assistance.
When fully operational, the network of 20 units would, according to the pitch, have the capacity to train more than 1,000 young people per year. AJAP had previously referenced an ambition of reaching approximately 500 trainees annually as the project grows — figures that may correspond to different phases or expansion scenarios.
In any scenario, the announced capacity will depend on the availability of anchor companies, the mobilisation of the financing required to establish the units and the existence of buyers to absorb the production.
INAGRO brought to the debate a concrete proposal: to train agricultural entrepreneurs within farms already integrated into the market.
The promoters also outline an arrangement with the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries, through the National Directorate of Forestry and Wildlife, to develop agroforestry systems and establish three regional demonstration incubators.
The documentation describes approvals and resource mobilisation that are yet to be concluded. The institutional partnership, like the financing of the national network, should therefore be assessed against what is subsequently formalised and executed.
INAGRO has the advantage of building on an existing operation, but also faces the familiar challenge of agricultural expansion plans. The results from Nhamatanda will need to be measured by the number of young people who completed training, the businesses that survived, the costs incurred, the volumes sold and the income earned after leaving the incubator. The five partnerships currently under negotiation will therefore be the first test of the model's replicability beyond the farm where it was born.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/?p=549333
