Despite the economic expansion that has characterized the country in recent years, Mozambique still occupies low positions in the Human Development Index, reaching the 181st place among 188 countries (UNDP, 2016).

The Province of Zambezia, the project’s intervention area for Quelimane agricola, is one of the poorest in the country: World Bank figures for 2016 estimate that 70% of the Zambezia population are below the poverty line and that half (48%) of the country’s poor live in that province and in Nampula.

The agricultural sector is the basis of the economy of northern Mozambique and employs 80% of the working population. For this reason, promoting the development of an agricultural market system would be the main instrument for reducing poverty by generating sustainable development.

STORIES OF RURAL QUELIMANE
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Publications:

http://www.milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org/a-menu-of-actions-to-shape-urban-food-environments-for-improved-nutrition/

https://oecd-development-matters.org/2021/02/04/the-challenges-and-opportunities-of-implementing-local-climate-action-lessons-from-quelimane-mozambique/

The project, co-financed by AICS, aims to contribute to the sustainable rural development of the province of Zambezia by strengthening the local agro-food system and its main actors: producers, private sector and local authorities.

In particular, the project promotes the adoption of innovative and sustainable practices in the production, marketing and consumption of agricultural products.

Expected results are: 

• Improvement of agricultural production in urban and suburban areas of Quelimane city in quantitative and qualitative terms, increase of profitability and productive seasonality through agro-ecological and technological techniques that promote environmental sustainability and adaptation to climate change;
• Structuring the marketing chain of local agricultural products with different activities related to storage, conservation, transport and sales;
• Creation of commercial units and infrastructure reinforcement of four nearby markets;
• Added value to local agricultural products through information, communication and policy activities that guide consumers, the private sector and local authorities in choosing healthy and nutritious foods produced in Zambezia.

Production:

• Producers’ capacity development program. The training will cover 540 small farmers on topics such as conservation agriculture and syntrophic agriculture, irrigation, fish farming, agro-forestry nurseries, composting, fertilizers and mangroves.
• Achievement of 18 annual agricultural campaigns with agricultural techniques of conservation and syntrophic agriculture.
• Establishment of 18 nurseries and semi-agroforestry banks, one for each of the communities involved. A nursery for the reforestation of mangroves will also be set up, the indiscriminate cutting of which will lead to erosion and salinization of soils and adverse effects on fisheries.
• Construction of 18 irrigation plants and 18 composting units in collaboration with the University of Florence.
• Development of a technological platform of information about weather, price dynamics and important events. 

Marketing:

• Realization of three warehouses of storage. One for district, they will be able to store until 35 tons of food each. The management committees will receive training from the Polytechnic University of Quelimane.
• Supply of means of transport. Each of the 18 communities will receive three bicycles, suitably modified to allow small transports. A 4×4 vehicle instead will be used for transports that are more important.
• Management, technical and commercial training through the Polytechnic University of Quelimane, which involves 30 producers in each of the three districts.
• Infrastructural interventions in four local markets of Quelimane, Nicoadala and Namacurra, with the collaboration of the municipalities of Milan and Reggio Emilia. The main focus will be on sewage systems, sanitation, safety systems, improving stands and hygiene standards for products for sale.
• Opening of new distribution channels: markets, supermarkets, restaurants, hospitals, school canteens.
• Promoting responsible and sustainable consumption. 
• Marketing and awareness-raising campaign to promote consumption of healthy and nutritious local products. The campaign will use local radios and events in the markets to spread the goodness and authenticity of the products and the absence of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the cultivation.
• Organisation of Zambezia’s first agro-ecological exhibition and an international symposium on sustainable agriculture. 
• Development of municipal policies about urban planning, access to food and healthy nutrition with the collaboration of the Municipalities of Milan and Reggio Emilia.
• Three young farmers will benefit from a one-month free internship at partner farms of Mani Tese and Istituto Tecnico Agrario Motti in Reggio Emilia. Young people will exchange their experiences and best practices from a seminar on agroecology held in Mozambique at the beginning of the third year of the project.