The climate of instability experienced in Europe due to the war in Ukraine is causing a negative impact on grain reserves worldwide, particularly for Mozambique, which is one of the importing countries of this commodity from Russia and Ukraine.
Recently, a scenario of uncertainty has been created in the country, caused mainly by contradictions between the government and the importing industries, about the volume of existing stocks of cereals to supply the entire national territory.
This time, as a way to ease the situation, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Celso Correia, suggests an investment in research and technology, in order to allow the country to overcome the crisis in the supply of cereals, following the war between Russia and Ukraine, which are one of the world’s largest producers of those goods.
Celso Correia was speaking this Monday, June 6, on the program Cartas na Mesa of Radio Mozambique, where he stated that “today we are experiencing a crisis of access to grain supply. If Mozambique had this investment in research, we could have conditions to have varieties of these cereals or others.
The minister defends that the country should be able to produce its own technology for the agricultural sector, so that it is not totally dependent on third parties when the subject is related to production.
“We have about 300 trained researchers, more than 1500 trained workers in research areas that need this support, this investment. Let’s believe in this team, that they can bring solutions from corn, cassava, soybean, and sunflower, all these crops that in other countries have very high profitability and productivity, and that can be achieved with adaptability, but also with agricultural research in Mozambique,” he warned.
The conflict in Ukraine lasts about four months, and has interrupted the supply of cereals to many dependent countries and caused the price of wheat and corn to skyrocket.
Data provided by the Integrated Agricultural Survey indicates that grain production in Mozambique will exceed 1.9 million tons in 2020, recording the largest rise in recent years.
