Sixty-four farmers from the Búzi District in Sofala have received irrigation equipment and agricultural inputs provided under the MANGWANA Programme.
The initiative is being implemented by a consortium comprising the Zambeze Agency, Tecnoserve, Resiliência Moçambique and the Manica Provincial Development Agency, with funding from the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with the aim of strengthening food systems and food and nutritional security.
According to the Provincial Governor, Lourenço Bulha, who presided over the ceremony today at the Guara-Guara Administrative Post in Búzi, the beneficiaries are part of a group of 184 small-scale farmers in the province to be funded by the programme, to the tune of an estimated ten million meticais, in the form of a grant with a 5% co-payment by the producer.
Bulha noted that the equipment and inputs will boost production capacity for the second season of the 2025/2026 agricultural campaign and enable the use of land lost as a result of floods.
The official handed over 170 irrigation systems, five sprayers, 34 hand hoes, 65 backpack sprayers, 50 watering cans, six water tanks, 189 rolls of 100-metre copolene piping and 189 rolls of 100-metre flexible piping.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Director-General of the Zambeze Agency, Celso Cunha, assured those present that small-scale farmers receiving the irrigation kits would receive technical assistance from the Mangwana Programme team, in coordination with local authorities.
It should be noted that, in Sofala Province, MANGWANA covers the districts of Búzi, Beira, Dondo, Nhamatanda and Gorongosa.