ALM UNDP

Summary:

The overall project goal of the market-oriented smallholder development project (IDA) is to accelerate agricultural growth and poverty reduction within the Central Region of Mozambique in line with PARPA priorities. The immediate project development objective is to increase the income of smallholder farmers in selected districts by empowering producers and building their organizations, increasing on- and off-farm production and productivity and facilitating access to markets. Although the natural resource base is still abundant in the Central Zambezi Valley, cropped land has expanded rapidly from 5 percent in 1992 to 17 percent in 1995 and has further increased since then. Land degradation has become locally an important problem. The return of migrants engaging in unsustainable slash-and-burn cropping practices has resulted in deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and decline in soil productivity. The traditional farming practices involve virtually no use of inputs or improved crop or land management technologies, which causes low yields, often less than half the yields in neighboring countries with similar agro-ecological conditions. This goes along with a loss of ecosystem services, with Tete and Sofala provinces among the most affected in the country, which is increasing the vulnerability of the agricultural systems, exacerbated by increasing frequencies and magnitude of droughts and floods. As population continues to expand and re-occupy the landscape and as infrastructure development increases it is highly likely that the pressure of extractive activities and misuse of natural resources will increase. Furthermore, climate variability and climate change will increasingly constrain economic growth and undermine investments. Mozambique is now in a position to steer its economic development in accordance with principles of environmental sustainability and to enhance adaptive capacity to climate change. The challenge is not only to protect the natural resources and to prevent further land degradation but also to use natural resources in an informed way in order to benefit optimally from their production potential. The GOM acknowledges the strong relationship between poverty and the environment, and aims to ensure that all stakeholders in the development process play their role in the preservation of the environment.