Food security update

The agricultural sector in Mozambique could grow by 10 percent in the 2001/2002 because of good rains in December last year, USAID's Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) said in its latest update this week.

"December rainfall benefited crop vegetative development in the southern and central regions of Mozambique and planting activities in the northern regions," FEWS said.

But a SAPA news report said on Wednesday said that 26,000 people in the central Sofala province were "at risk of going hungry" because of irregular rainfall.

However, a spokesman for the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) told IRIN that the problems experienced in the area were "largely cyclical".

"The districts that the news report is referring to face the same kinds of problems each year, particularly as the harvest season approaches which normally begins about mid-March," Inyene Udoyen said. "A joint government, NGO, United Nations assessment in January to the province found that the situation was actually not as bad as usual."

Udoyen said that the assessment did find a problem with locust infestation. "I understand that the government has already sent pesticides to help with the problem," he added.

According to the SAPA report there had been delays in seed distribution which had "contributed to the food shortage".

Udoyen said however, that there were no real problems with seed distribution but some areas in the provinces were "logistically difficult to reach".