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Mozambique

Mozambique's grain output to reach 1.7 million tons

MAPUTO, Jul 16, 2001 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Mozambican Agriculture Minister Helder Muteia Monday forecast that the country's grain harvest is expected to reach 1.7 million tons this year.

Muteia said this forecast comes from an assessment made by staff of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) , who are traveling around the country estimating the harvest.

Muteia disclosed that last year's harvest reached at 1.4 million tons.

The 2000 harvest suffered because of the flooding that hit most parts of southern and central Mozambique. This year's floods, mainly in the Zambezi and Pungue valleys, are not so damaging.

Food insecurity continues, said Muteia, "because in Mozambique we have subsistence agriculture in a situation where the road and marketing networks do not permit a systematic exchange of produce.We have cases where people might have rice, or tangerines, or some other crop, but they don't have meat, or fish, or sugar, for instance."

Cultural factors also play a role in lack of food security "because there are people living in chronically drought-prone areas, and they don't want to leave because their grandparents were born, grew up and died in that poverty. When we tell them to move to more productive areas, they simply refuse", he added.

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Received by NewsEdge Insight: 07/17/2001 04:06:13