According to a note from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADER), “the project, designed to meet national needs for meat and milk production, and for export, with particular emphasis on the People’s Republic of China and Saudi Arabia, also symbolizes that Mozambique is able to attract megaprojects in the commercial agriculture subsector.”
Massingir Valley Farms, which has become one of the largest alfalfa (lucerne) plantations for fodder production in Africa, has already generated 200 new direct jobs in 18 months, and has installed itself with state-of-the-art production technology, with emphasis on the automated irrigation system consisting of 50-hectare pivots. The system promotes precision agriculture, saving about 70% of the water needed to cover this plantation.
The province of Gaza has the largest national herd, with about 400 000 heads, followed by the provinces of Maputo and Inhambane. This year the livestock sector will grow about 9%, where meat production will grow 15%.
The Government’s priority, says the MADER note, has been the development of family farming “because the majority of the Mozambican population has agriculture as its main source of income, but our strategic approach also foresees the emergence of commercial agriculture.
