Mozambican President Armando Guebuza declared on Monday that, over the past year, food security in Mozambique has notably improved.Giving his annual State of the Nation address to the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Guebuza stressed that the goal of the “Green Revolution” advocated by the government was to make the leap from subsistence agriculture to “an integrated, sustainable, competitive and prosperous agricultural sector that contributes to the economic growth of Mozambique by guaranteeing increased production and food security, an increase in productivity, and an increase in market-oriented production”.He said that Agricultural Research Area Centres were now providing technical assistance to over 400,000 peasant households, notably through ensuring the availability of improved and certified seeds.The government was also encouraging “the allocation of resources for the gradual mechanization of agriculture”, so that farmers would graduate from the simple hoe, to animal traction and then to tractors.“These techniques lead to an increase in the areas under cultivation, and increased production and productivity, in an efficient and sustainable manner, maintaining the existing agro-ecological balance, and promoting the sustainable use of land”, said Guebuza.Irrigation was also key, he added, since it could minimize the impact of climate change and establish condition for producing crops throughout the year. Guebuza said that 27,000 hectares of irrigated schemes had been established for the production of food crops, in addition to existing water resources.Such measures had led to increases in the production of the crops that are basic to food security, such as maize, sorghum, rice, cassava, potatoes, sweet potato and beans, he continued. For conservation and storage, techniques for building improved barns were being publicized, and they were under construction in several districts to reduce post-harvest losses.As for livestock, Guebuza claimed that the growth in the number of cattle and poultry in the country had led to a significant reduction in beef and chicken imports.Turning to energy, Guebuza said that so far 91 of the country’s 128 districts have been linked to the national electricity grid, based on power from the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi river. Alongside the national grid went the development of renewable sources of energy, including mini-hydropower dams in the central province of Manica, and the installation of solar panels in schools, health units, and public office.“They are making a valuable contribution in the diversification of the national energy matrix, and are an alternative solution in many administrative posts and localities”, said Guebuza.The President said that over 50 per cent of the population now has access to clean drinking water. Water supply coverage in rural areas increased from 43 per cent in 2007 to 54 per cent in 209, and in the urban areas, over than same period, from 40 to 60 per cent.Although many households still had to walk long distances to obtain water, it was a fact that “more Mozambicans have water close at hand, and in some cases available for 18 hours or more a day”.When it came to recent discoveries of gas and oil in the Rovuma Basin off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, Guebuza sounded a warning note. Although those discoveries (made by the US company Anadarko) “encourage us to continue exploration to confirm the real quantities of these hydrocarbons”, nobody should imagine that oil and gas constituted a miracle cure for the problems of the Mozambican economy.“Oil and gas, no matter what the quantities are, are not going to solve the problems of poverty”, stressed Guebuza. “We must thus continue to bank on agricultural production”.He also insisted on the need to promote “the knowledge society”, since “knowledge is our renewable petroleum”.
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