SUPPORTING DEVELOPMENT IN ZAMBEZIA

The poverty and food insecurity of Zambezia originate from scarce and little diversified agricultural products, poor crop management and unsustainable rural development. The backwardness of agricultural practices, combined with extreme climatic events suchas floods and droughts, result in very poor and inadequate crop yields.  The “cut and burn” practice, used to fertilize a plot of land, is a very common practice that eventually leads to land impoverishment and desertification.

Agricultural production is based almost exclusively on rice, corn and cassava. The nutritional power of the latter is very low. Moreover, the post-production processes of crops are not adequate, and this prevents the development of on-site trade and export: production is only just enough for subsistence.
Fish farming and beekeeping are present, yet little developed. As far as the first one is concerned, the supply of feed is greatly hindered by transport difficulties and high costs. On top of this, the knowledge on conservation and processing techniques is limited.
As for beekeeping, honey is produced using archaic techniques and rudimentary equipment and the resulting low-quality product is therefore difficult to sell.
Lastly, the new generations, representing more than 50% of the population, do not possess the skills needed to cope with an emergency situation and do not know how to secure houses and fields nor how the available natural resources should be managed.

To address these issues, the intervention focuses on an increase in and a greater diversification of agricultural production. Post-production processes will also be optimized and the ability to adapt crops to extreme climate changes will be improved. The project’s key point will therefore be thecreation of 300 more resistant plantations, characterised by a better yield and the smallest possible impact on the environment.
The project also envisages the consolidation of fish farming and beekeeping. To this end, 100 breeding tanks for tilapia will be installed and fish-processing ovens and driers will be built.
600 beehives will also be put in place for beekeeping and two honey processing centres will be created, which will be linked to the local Cizenda Tae Cooperative.
For both activities, training courses will be organized for 100 fish farmers and 100 beekeepers. While mostly bringing economic benefits, the improvement of the production system will also boost social emancipation, at the same time, enhancing the role and skills of women.

The intervention will also target education in schools, and training activities on Environmental Education will be organised both in Mozambique and in Italy.

Project’s overview

The overall objective of the project is to help boost food security in the province of Zambezia by developing sustainable and resilient agri-food supply chains in the districts of Derre, Lugela, Namarroi and Gilé.

CELIM’s activities as part of a larger project are:

• creating 3 multi-service centres with tractors, motor pumps, workshop and an agricultural input store
• improving fish farming by building a hatchery and a centre for the production of feed from agricultural waste, training 100 fish farmers, setting up fish farms, building ovens and dryers
• improving beekeeping by installing 600 beehives and distributing beekeeping material, training 100 beekeepers on beekeeping techniques and honey processing, creating 2 centres for processing and filtering honey
• organizing environmental education activities in Italy to promote a comparison between the two countries on environmental issues, helping train citizens to become active and develop awareness of international cooperation issues.

Ultimate goal: increasing and diversifying agricultural production, improving post-production processes, as well as the ability to adapt to climate events.