This Monday, as part of the implementation of the SUSTENTA project, a 5,000-hectare levelling programme kicked off in the lower Limpopo and Chokwe irrigated areas in Gaza province, aimed at intensive rice production, Radio Moçambique reports.
With 3,000 hectares in the Chokwe irrigation areas and 2,000 in Lower Limpopo, the levelling programme is part of the rice production intensification campaign, to increase cereal production, It is expected to raise production of the mainly family sector farmers from three to more than six tons of rice per hectare.
The government is spending, via the National Fund for Sustainable Development, about 600 billion meticais improving the viability of rice cultivation in the two areas.
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The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Celso Correia, who launched the programme in Gaza, said that this amount was intended for the clearing and maintenance of irrigation channels and drainage ditches, equipment repair, maintenance of access roads, and the promotion and commercialisation of rice production.
Source: Rádio Moçambique via Club of Mozambique