Mozambique: Food security must be improved

Deputy Minister of Agriculture Antonio Limbau said in Maputo on 10 March that the country's food and nutritional security must be "deeply improved".

Speaking at the launch of a new agricultural and food statistical information system, Limbau said that according to the latest survey results about 37 per cent of all households in Mozambique experience hunger at some period during the year.

"These numbers concern us", he said. "They show the need for drastic improvements in the food and nutritional security of our people".

For this to happen, he added, all the stakeholders in Mozambican agriculture must have available, in good time, accurate statistical information that can support them in making decisions.

The new system is part of an expanded programme of the United National Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the tune of $5.6 million. Known as "CountrySTAT", this instrument puts onto the Internet all the country's statistics on agriculture, livestock, fisheries and food.

Margarida Marques, of the FAO office in Maputo, said that the CountrySTAT tool is now used by 200 countries, 17 of them in sub-Saharan Africa.