Challenges

One of the biggest issues facing agriculture in Africa is that certain regions have natural conditions that are inadequate for crop cultivation owing to geography and climate. The savanna is widely known for its dry conditions, which, complemented by an acid soil, represent a significant barrier for agricultural activities in countries such as Kenya, Mozambique and the United Republic of Tanzania. Low levels of technology and mechanization as well as inadequate technical training make it even more difficult to maintain crops in these countries as smallholder farmers struggle to achieve sustainable production.

Toward a Solution

ProSAVANA aims at generating new models for rural development, taking into account the environmental conditions of the region to reduce poverty in the Nacala Corridor in Mozambique. The natural similarity of the Cerrado in Brazil allows for the sharing of experiences, especially tackling soil conditions, which in turn may boost productivity and generate employment, revenue and development across the aforementioned countries. The project seeks to incorporate the results of relevant studies from Brazil to support the establishment of appropriate models of agrarian development in Mozambique. At the same time, it seeks to increase productivity through the development of a market-based approach, facilitating access to inputs and services and crop diversification, in order to properly develop value chains and expand cultivated areas. Finally, the aim is to establish regional agricultural centres and develop value-chain systems with public-private partnerships and actions of non-governmental organizations to enable technical training and technology transfer.

The project established as a target area the Nacala Corridor region, comprising the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambezia, Niassa and Tete. With three separate, although integrated, programmes, its methodology involved several phases: (a) “Define development models and formulate reference projects to be implemented”, and “Identify and select potential stakeholders in the target areas of ProSAVANA to engage in promoting agricultural development models”; (b) “Select target groups, areas and partners for the reference projects” and “implement, monitor and evaluate the reference projects”; (c) “Engage public/private/NGOs in the reference projects to contribute to Activity 1-5” (see (d)); (d) “Recommend potential agricultural development models based on the reference projects”; (e) “Support implementation of the agricultural development models in the target areas of ProSAVANA”; and (f) “Compile public policy recommendation(s) to promote the potential agricultural development models for sustainable rural development”.[1]

For systemic and cross-country effectiveness, “co-ordinating institutions (Mozambique Ministry for Agriculture and Food Security, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) agreed on the establishment of a ProSAVANA administrative coordination unit in Maputo, namely, ProSAVANA-HQ”[2] to act as a communication centre and mobilize the institutions involved to ensure that the Mozambique ministries and other agencies liaise with the project. The aim is for the work to be coordinated and to implement public relations activities with the private sector, civil society and academics interested in information, dialogue and developing activities within the ProSAVANA framework, focusing on the Nacala Corridor as a focal point.

The project’s activities were structured in accordance to the principles of environmental protection, and succeeded in supporting Mozambican farmers and contributing to poverty reduction, food security and nutrition. As outcomes, ProSAVANA achieved the following:

1. Strengthening of the operational capacity of the Agricultural Research Institute of Mozambique (IIAM) Northeast and Northwest research centres;
2. Evaluation of natural resources and environmental impact resulting from the use of new agricultural technologies and socio-economic conditions in the Nacala;
3. Development of soil improvement technologies for agricultural use in Nacala Corridor;
4. Development of appropriate cultivation technologies and livestock production of Nacala Corridor; and
5. Development and validation of new agricultural technology, which were then implemented in the demonstration units.

ProSAVANA is sustainable and replicable because it involves the commitment of the  Government of Mozambique to mitigate a long-standing issue concerning the country’s agriculture with the assistance of international partners. The project was able to build on a Brazilian-led agenda of mitigating the natural conditions of the Cerrado to improve agricultural output and transfer such concerns to the Mozambican reality, engaging national and provincial governments alongside local communities in a joint effort to improve the situation of the savanna. Even though ProSAVANA is a triangular cooperation project, with the involvement of Japan in the role of a traditional donor for development projects as a provider of technology and training, the focus of the initiative was the synergy between Brazil and Mozambique, which can be replicated and scaled up in future South-South cooperation projects. With due adjustments in governance mechanisms and cultural approach, Brazil can become a hub for sharing soil-related experiences with other African countries, especially Portuguese-speaking ones, assisting in the identification of major challenges and the development of institutions capable of delivering solutions.