Fifteen thousand hectares of sugarcane fields remain flooded, in Maragra, Manhiça district, Maputo province, which represents more than half of the total cultivated area, around 29 thousand hectares. Even so, the Minister of Agriculture says that there will be no sugar shortages or price increases.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Celso Correia, flew over the area this Monday to assess the level of damage caused by water and confirmed that “the destruction is very great and there are fields completely flooded”.
According to him, of the 15,000 hectares destroyed, around 8,500 belong to subcontracted producers, which represents great losses, since most of them, according to Correia, have made large investments and have debts with the bank.
“Data from the preliminary assessment indicate that around 1 billion Meticais will be needed just to recover the area lost to subcontractors, where around 650 million Meticais will be needed for replanting and around 350 million Meticais to replace infrastructure. transport and drainage structures, dikes, among others,” said Celso Correia, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The forecast is that only six or eight weeks from now, the fields will be able to be worked on and the real needs for reinvestments will be exhaustively determined.
Although there are losses, the minister said there is good news: “We are comforted, first, in knowing that there will be no shortage of sugar in the country; second, a rise in the price of sugar is not foreseen, at least for now”.
For his part, Júlio Parruque, governor of Maputo Province, guarantees that producers will have more facilities to speed up the recovery of what was lost.
“For us, Maputo Province, sugarcane is our green gold, whose affected areas will be, by the provincial Government, exempt from paying the annual fee for the Right to Use and Benefit from Land (DUAT)”, guaranteed Júlio Parruque , Governor of Maputo Province.
The sugar production sector supports around 25,000 families in the country, and has an annual turnover of around US$150 million and around US$65 million in exports.
FARMERS VICTIMS OF FLOODS RECEIVE SUPPORT FROM “SUSTAINA EMERGENCY”
After flying over the flooded fields, in Maragra, Celso Correia went to Boane to meet farmers who were victims of the floods, who benefited from production kits, consisting of hoes and seeds.
Larger-scale producers received tractors under the “Sustenta Emergência” programme, which, as the minister said, totaled 12,000 kits for Maputo Province and 42,000 for the rest of the country, in the areas affected by the floods.
“Make good use of the means you have. To the extensionists who use these motorcycles to be closer to our producers; they need you, especially in the next 30 days when the seed is sown in the ground”, he recommended.
Celso Correia said that each kit is valued at around 12,000 to 18,000 Meticais, taking into account purchase, logistics and transport.
According to Judite Mussácula, Secretary of State for Maputo Province, the means delivered should serve to change the agricultural indicators of producers, increase production and productivity and improve the well-being of beneficiaries.
“To the producers who received the kits today (Monday), we hope that, with your experience and with the assistance of extension agents, you will increase your production capacity and supply the markets with agricultural products in quantity and quality, the fruit of your work”, warned Mussacula.
The beneficiaries, happy, said that the kits will make a lot of difference, since, in addition to having lost their crops in the “machambas” and the harvested products that were already in the granaries, the water carried away their work tools.