Mossuril bets on more agriculture

The Mossuril district in Nampula province has prepared just over 47,000 hectares of land where it expects to produce 274,000 tons of food in the present agricultural campaign.Speaking at the recent Field Day celebrations, district administrator Nerina John said that the area for the current agricultural season exceeded that of last year by 3,000 hectares, and production was expected to increase by 25,000 tons.The district of Mossuril has 18 public network and partner extension agents involved in the agricultural production chain, with technicians transferring technologies to producers, particularly in the family and associative sector, in order to increase production and productivity in their areas of culture. As a result of this technical assistance, a Naguema region producer had worked an area of four hectares and grown corn and peanuts which he was now harvesting. Meanwhile, in spite of the irregular rainfall after the devastation of the district in February, district director Mossuril Economic Activities Alfredo Nampuio said that the situation would not impede the fulfilment of production targets in the present agricultural season, as it had affected only 500 hectares. He said that his sector carried out immediate action to correct losses in the affected area, with the planting of second season crops such as beans, sesame and vegetables, all with encouraging results. In addition to agricultural production for household income, Mossuril district has potential in the fishing industry, where it has registered just over 50 artisanal fishermen supplying markets in Nampula and Nacala.

It also has a salt and lime industry, products exploited both individually and by collectives.

Extraction of lime generates yields.

Extraction of limestone in the Namathinthe community, 15 kilometres from Mossuril district headquarters, is generating wealth for a group of artisan producers.

Indeed, many of the operators have already made home improvements and have acquired motorcycles and other goods as a result of the commercialisation of their product, which is considered of high quality.According to the president of the Association of Cal Explorers, Ali Amisse, an association of little more than a dozen members, the opening of the mine has already generated employment for 24 people in the community, of whom 17 are women who work on an occasional basis and, in one form or another, also benefit from the yields of the deposit.Producers, who have been practising their craft since 1993 using picks and hoes, process the ore in an open-air kiln in order to achieve higher production volumes, currently 35 tonnes over a three-and-a-half month period.Ali Amisse, the president of the association, who pioneered the activity in Namathinthe, singles out the unsustainable price charged by hauliers to transport the lime from the extraction zone to the warehouses four kilometres away as one of his main difficulties.“Our lime is of great quality, because it is produced in a process different from the usual one, and we have a guaranteed market in the Island of Mozambique that absorbs all our production for building rehabilitation, but we have a problem with transportation because, for each hundred 50-kilograms sacks, they charge us 1,000 meticais for a four-kilometre trip,” Amisse complains.