Maputo, 5 Aug (AIM) – Mozambican Agriculture Minister Roberto Albino has announced that the country has 1.2 billion meticais (20 million dollars at the current exchange rate) available to fund seed production, improved conservation facilities, and other equipment for agricultural production.
According to the minister, who was speaking at the National Seed Meeting, taking place in Chimoio, capital of the central province of Manica, under the slogan: “Investing in quality seeds to increase production and productivity”, the country must design smart strategies for agricultural production.
“Agricultural sector stakeholders must be consistent in implementing smart measures that can produce positive results in food production”, he said.
“If we want to increase production and productivity, we must be consistent and invest in priorities, such as the Agricultural Research Institute, which looks more like a Natural History Museum, and whose level of destruction worsened with last year’s post-election protests”, he said.
“Companies have been providing substandard inputs at exorbitant prices. They don’t care about the quality and germination capacity of the seeds”, he accused.
According to the Minister, the country has no measures to fight the main problems plaguing agriculture “and we must implement what is in the plans and projections, converting them into concrete actions.”
“We have already made several diagnoses and we understand the problems facing our agriculture, especially diseases. We must follow a direction focused on actions. One of the sector’s biggest constraints is that we talk more and do less”, he said.
“We need change, starting within the Ministry. We need to strengthen the seed service with money, human resources, and materials for seed certification”, he explained.
(AIM)
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