Mozambique: Producers practice agroecology for decades without knowing

Mozambique: Producers practice agroecology for decades without knowing

 

By Charles Mangwiro 

MAGUDE:   (MOZAMBIQUE) Generation after generation have cultivated land using manure from animals such as chickens, cattle and pigs without knowing they were practicing agroecology. 

 

The practice, which later adopted the use of pesticides to kill pests, has seen parents in Mozambique passing on the tradition to their children over the years.

Despite being practiced for centuries, most local farmers only use it because they were taught to do so but do not know its real benefits apart from that it provides nutritious food for both human health and the environment.

In Manhiça district, some 75 kilometres north of the capital in Maputo province, an 80-year-old father of 23 children and husband to two wives Almeida Manhiça, started farming at the age of 20.

Today he cultivates 10 hectares of land, where he grows almost everything and a little more. Bananas, papayas, mango, sweet potato,cassava and various vegetables, among other crops.

He is proud of occupation and thanks agriculture for funding his daughter’s wedding and for sending all his children to school up to the University level.

 

Almeida practices agroecology on his field because he was taught that way by his father and, in turn, he, too, has taught his wives and children.

He only uses a few bio-chemicals to fight some pests that, from time to time, attack his crops. Apart from that, he produces and use different manures from chickens, cattle and pigs. 

 

He doesn’t use goats because they burn the production.

Almeida strongly believes that his good health at the age of 80 is a result of a good agrochemical-free diet which also helps in keeping the immune system strong and able to fight body sicknesses.

 

“Just look at me, do I look like someone who is 80 years old? I have been taking care of my health and eating food which is free of bio-chemicals all my life, so I think agroecology is the way to go, not only for food sovereignty but also for good health and longevity”, he said.

He, however, complained about the low yield per hectare, compared to producers who opt for chemical products. “In terms of quantities, I harvest very little compared to those who use chemical fertilizers, but everything I harvest has a lot of quality and flavor”, he boasted.
In his opinion, using good agricultural practices helps to conserve the environment, as it avoids damage that could affect future generations. Even though he doesn’t use products that are harmful to the environment, he has been rotating crops whenever he can.

To be able to cultivate the 10 hectares, Almeida Manhiça uses tractors and when it is time for planting he hires people to work in small parts of the field. He says, through this way, he cuts on expenses and focuses on production.

While a larger part of his output is family subsistence, the surplus is sold to people from Manhiça town and Maputo city. In addition to agricultural production, he rares animals such as chickens, ducks, goats for family consumption, just like his father did. “They are good practices, so since my father taught me I implement and I taught my
children so that they can pass them on to my grandchildren and so on”.

Still in Manhiça, another 49 – year old peasant farmer Sérgio Mabunda, 49, a former worker at Açucareira da Maragra, has now been practicing subsistence farming for just a few years. 

 

He is passionate about agroecology and knows the advantages that come with the practice.

“I have never used agrochemicals in my activities. With agroecology, all I need is the right soil” he said explaining that he started practicing the system in small backyard gardens. “Since childhood, I have never stopped using chicken manure for my crops”.

Currently, he has corn, cassava and peanuts in his fields. “I’ve never used chemicals and so far I don’t feel like changing because it can harm my health and that of my family. I like the agriculture I am practicing and I intend to continue that way”.

DUMPED AGROECOLOGY FOR BOCHEMICALS

Next to Mabunda’s farm is 60 year-old Elias Raul who has more than 10 hectares, where he grows sugarcane, vegetables and still has the eucalyptus trees he uses for protection against soil erosion.

Of the 10 hectares, five are used for the production of sugarcane and vegetables.
While Raul recognizes that agroecology is a good theory, according to what he hears from environmentalists, he feels it is no longer applicable in Mozambique, since production costs are very high and the price of the final product is very low.

“We have a concrete example of sugarcane that is sold for less than one US cent per kilogram, can you imagine what it takes to get U$700?”.

For several years, Elias Raul did organic farming, where he only used chicken manure, but the yield was not satisfactory, because of the final price. “We Africans don’t know the nutritional value of products, we usually look for the biggest ones, but these grow so much because of the use of agrochemicals”.

What worsens his situation is the absence of supermarkets who are
interested in buying local farm produce dedicated to the purchase of organic products. 

 

Raul bemoaned lack of incentives for the promotion of organic agriculture or “otherwise, agrochemicals will continue to gain ground because, despite damaging the   environment, they compensate in the final product”.

His justification for embarking on the use of agrochemicals is the amount of production it achieves during harvest period. “I was one of the last to change my practice, I only changed it last year. I had ten workers, with a minimum wage above U$50 for for twelve months and I couldn’t make any revenue to cover for their wages so I approached a
commercial bank for loan.”

Stories from farmers who have narrated the difference between agroecology and herbicide-based production, led to his switching and says that he can already feel the difference between the two practices.

Raul says with agroecology he had become a regular bank customer because he was in and out of the bank carrying a loan or a deposit from loan shark. “I was in a situation that held me hostage to credit”, he said. 

As a result the use of biochemical reduced the number of workers to two who work seasonally. 

Therefore, he understands that the use of these herbicides pays off, as it reduced the expenses he had in relation to labour and even got rid of the bank credit that was already part of his journey.

Despite now being the user agrochemicals, there is still hope for Elias Raul, as he said he recently bought a new farm some 20kilometres away where he produces corn and sweet potatoes.

At the new farm, a national organization approached him and encourages the cultivation of sweet potato using the traditional method (without agrochemicals), many producers joined and he was one of them. “I believe that if the project takes some time, we will have a good result”.

However, he remains shy about a future where agroecology is based on because it is not a common practice in Mozambique, “the countries that encourage this practice are doing it because they know and value it, but it is still a very distant reality for us. ”

Raul said he was aware of the dangers of using biochemicals, but “even the medicines we consume have side effects, just like anything chemical. I do not believe that Mozambique can achieve food sovereignty in the near future because there are more and more people interested in coming to our country and this is reflected in the
number of people who come to live here”.

 

IN MAGUDE DISTRICT THE PRACTICE OF AGROECOLOGY IS ON THE RISE

In the district of Magude, this reporter met Teresa Simango soaked up on a rainy day as she was in her field planting corn. She said she wanted to take advantage of the rain that had fallen the previous day.

 

On site Simango expressed how she felt as a promoter of agroecology.

At her farm, Teresa Simango plants corn, watermelon, sweet potato and cassava and has lost count of the years she has been involved in that activity, but has never used fertilizers since she knows the dangers it brings to her health and to the environment.

“In fact, I know that those who opt for the use of biochemical are large scale commercial agriculture companies but in my case I don’t see the need because I only sell a little surplus”, She said.

Simango added: “I know that our (agroecology) production is very healthy and is good for the heart, helps to prevent cancers and other diseases. I believe it helps us live a little longer. I see a lot of advantage for practicing this type of agriculture, but the problem is that we have to wait for the rain”.

One of the problems facing her farm is its location on the lower Incomati river, whose banks periodically overflows forcing her to start afresh.

 “When we lose our production, we are forced to buy it and this is a little more expensive for us and not to mention that they are products that are not at all natural. The truth is that when it rains we have problems, but when it doesn’t rain, it’s also a problem”.

In turn, Carlina Fulana highlighted that this is the planting season and the chosen crop is maize. She has been in the agroecology practice of agriculture for many years and priority is to feed her family, so she doesn’t use fertilizers in her practice. What she was taught is that fertilizer is used for sugarcane and not for other cereals and
vegetables.

“When we have floods, the situation gets complicated, but we’ve been hungry for years because it doesn’t rain, there was a cycle of almost five years when we didn’t have rain and, as a result, our agriculture productivity dropped to a record low. This affects us a lot because we buy everything for us is food.”

MAGUDE ADMINISTRATOR TALKS ABOUT AGROECOLOGY

The administrator of Magude district, Lázaro Bambamba, said that the producers who practice agroecology are part of the family sector that produces for their own subsistence. Among them, there are associations that receive seeds, motor pumps, technical assistance, so they start to have surpluses that they sell and get some money.

Another example, which Bamamba used to show the practice for sustainable agriculture, is through the use of the drip irrigation system that he considered traditional. This type of irrigation is being implemented in Magude-sede, in Panjane and Motaze. 

 

“This type of irrigation is a traditional way of sowing”.

According to his account, in cases involving fertilizers and pesticides, the Government has done everything to ensure that they comply with the recommendations of the extension workers. 

 

“They cannot bring techniques and technologies that are no longer recommended at
national level because we do not want to go against the grain. We have
to be aligned.”

Until then, it has performed well because the extension workers are implementing everything stipulated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADER).
Magude district has 23 associations producing sugar cane while 25
produce vegetables and cereals for consumption. 

“We have been assisting groups that use agrochemicals as well as those that opt for
organic production”, he concluded.