Climate resilient farming

Land Tenure and Agricultural Production in Mozambique

Context
About 70% of the population in Mozambique depends on small farms to get their food. Investing in their own farmland comes with a high risk, because people do not know if they can stay on their farmland. They do not have land tenure. For them it is difficult to escape poverty and meet the increasing food demand. Mainly caused by limited access to funding and lack of technical know-how. The farmers do not produce a lot of food, they mostly depend on rain and they barely have any income from their crops.

The project will take place in the Nhamatanda area, 100 km from Beira the second largest city of Mozambique. It is a disaster-prone area, most recently hit by the tropical cyclone Idai in 2019, Chalane in 2020 and Eloise in 2021.

Organization
Dorcas has been involved in relief and development programs for 40 years and currently operates in 14 focus countries. Dorcas has been active in Mozambique for 18 years with a local presence. They focus on areas of entrepreneurship, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), agriculture, health, and child development. Dorcas wants to continue to work in the area of Nhamatanda, Central Mozambique, to foster the initial rehabilitation work that has been done together with UNICEF.

‘Thanks to God who provides, results of my success are visible in my community, people are now drinking clean safe water, and waterborne diseases are becoming few also distances to water sources are reduced.’ – Noe Ferinando (19 yrs), driller boreholes.

Project
This project will support farmers in 10 villages, 6500 households (HHs), in increasing their land security, agricultural production, access to funding and provide services. Services to increase their know-how on affordable irrigation techniques and on selling their production surplus to generate more income. In this project youth and women will get special attention by providing training in relevant skills and in creating jobs. In this way, women can have household stability and practice sustainable agriculture.

Based upon an impressive track record, Dorcas is implementing in Mozambique a very focused approach related to the following key project activities:

• Land security: advocacy, awareness raising on land security and official recording of land rights, in close cooperation with provincial government
• Agricultural production: training of smallholder farmers in techniques like Climate Smart Agriculture and Integrated Farm Planning (PIP). Dorcas is also providing equipment to small farming families, where relevant;
• Access to services to increase productivity: village saving and loans associations (VLSA) support, linking VLSA’s to finance institutions, technical and business skills training & coaching of manual drilling associations, linking
  farmers to these associations in order to increase access to affordable irrigation equipment;
• Marketing: formation of farmer marketing groups for joint selling of agricultural surplus products, and training & coaching of farmer marketing associations.

Project budget
Many people are very vulnerable in this area because of the natural disasters that have taken place. Fortunately, the emergency relief phase has been completed. It is now of great importance that we offer the residents new perspectives for the future. Therefore, investing in sustainable techniques and climate resistant agriculture is crucial.

MissionInvest USA is willing to do her utmost in raising the necessary funding for this important project with lasting impact for thousands of vulnerable people. The total budget for the project is $500,000. The project will run for 3 years, this given the integrated development nature of the project and the duration of a full PIP cycle of at least two and a half years. The funding need per year is $167,000.

Impact
This ambitious project targets 6,500 households in 10 villages, which means about 30,000 vulnerable people (on average 5 people per household). This means, 30,000 people in the Nhamatanda area will daily benefit from having a decent job, a better income, and the importance of food-security and access to safe drinking water!

In the project plan, Dorcas Mozambique has defined quite some impact indicators they want to achieve, but below we mention just a few of them, like:

• A healthy environment to invest in, due to land security
• 6500 households (HHs) are engaged in market oriented income generating activities
• 75% of the 6500 engaged HHs, 4875 HHs, will apply climate smart agriculture practices and have an increased income.
• 60 VSLA will be established in 10 communities and all 10 communities will have made PIP plans
• 6500 HHs will engage in Village Saving and Loans (VSLA)
• 10 associations or groups will be active in marketing
• Fertile and productive soil, due to efficient irrigation
• Directly enhanced livelihoods and improved lives of the people in Nhamatanda

Together we work for those in need. Together with the people of Nhamatanda we can create a subsequent enabling environment for farmers and local businesses. Where people thrive and flourish, using their God given potential.