Poor marketing hinders food security efforts

Poor marketing of agricultural products was the major stumbling block to ensuring food security and good nutrition in Mozambique, news reports said on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) was quoted as saying that proper marketing implied co-ordinated planning involving the authorities responsible for roads and bridges as well as the traders and the factories that process agricultural products. “Farmers will only produce more if they know they can sell their products,” the spokeswoman said.

“Currently, the FAO and the Agriculture Ministry are working on a US $1.7 million food security programme covering Maputo, Sofala and Manica provinces aimed at introducing new production technologies,” she said. She added Mozambique has made progress in the agricultural sector, but that people needed to diversify their diet if they were to have good nutrition.

Last year the country harvested nearly two million mt of grain - mostly maize - compared to the 300,000 tons a year during the the civil war.