Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Monday encouraged peasant farmers in the Muapula administrative post, in Maua district, in the northernmost province of Niassa, to remain committed to raising their agricultural production, and thus contribute to the eradication of poverty.He was addressing a rally in Muapula that marked the start of a working visit to Niassa as part of his “open and inclusive presidency”. In the latter stages of the war of destabilisation, Muapula saw serious clashes between the Mozambican armed forces and the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels who set up their provicial base in this area.But with the end of the war in 1992, residents of Muapula were able to farm the land in safety, and guarantee self-sufficiency in food production. Muapula is regarded as the granary of Maua district, and its farmers have produced excellent harvests of maize, sorghum, cassava and sweet potato, as well as of tobacco, which is the main cash crop.Livestock farmers have bred milk cattle, and Guebuza praised them for turning some of this production into yoghurt. This he regarded as living proof of the possibility of forcing poverty onto the defensive.Guebuza said there are still people who believe that poverty can never be overcome, but Muapula is proof of how wrong they are. Evidence that peasant farmers in Muapula are improving their living standards can be seen in their brick houses, their motorcycles, and the large amounts of maize and other crops that they have harvested. Guebuza recalled that the day of the rally was also the birthday, 91 years ago, on 20 June 1920, of Eduardo Mondlane, the founder and first president of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), regarded as “the architect of national unity”.Guebuza noted that, despite his doctorate, and despite his prestigious job at the United Nations, Mondlane abandoned what promised to be a brilliant career, in order to unite Mozambicans and show them the path to victory over Portuguese colonialism.At the rally, Muapula residents asked Guebuza for an ambulance so that seriously ill people can be evacuated quickly to the nearest hospital, and a maternity facility plus a waiting house where mothers-to-be could wait for the birth. They also wanted their administrative post to be brought within mobile phone coverage.A further concern expressed was that elephants sometimes invade farmers’ fields and destroy their crops. Earlier this year one rogue elephant even entered Maua town, causing panic as it chased children through the streets.But perhaps the most serious complaint was of a lack of transparency in the management of the District Development Fund (FDD) in Maua. When one resident mentioned this, he was greeted with whooping and applause. The FDD is still commonly known as “the seven million”, because it started life in 2006 as a transfer of seven million meticais (about 241,000 US dollars) from the central state budget to each of the 128 districts. The money was to be lent to groups and individuals with viable projects that could boost food production and create jobs.As at all the other rallies he has addressed during his “open presidency”, Guebuza did not promise immediate solutions, but guaranteed that the problems raised would all be studied. Those relating to physical infrastructure, such as maternity facilities and mobile phone masts, were already on the government’s agenda, he said.
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