A lack of price transparency, high transport costs, limited access to finance, and infrastructure deficits continue to compromise the Mozambican agricultural sector’s capacity to generate income and supply raw materials to domestic industry.
These constraints affect multiple value chains and hinder the conversion of agricultural potential into economic wealth, despite the country’s vast natural resource base.
These are among the key findings presented in the book Agriculture and Economic Transformation in Mozambique: Evidence, Policies, and Pathways for Development (Agricultura e Transformação Económica em Moçambique: Evidências, Políticas e Caminhos para o Desenvolvimento), a collaborative volume featuring 16 national and international researchers. The publication synthesizes multi-year studies examining the structural challenges facing agriculture and the broader Mozambican economy.
Speaking at the book launch on Wednesday in Maputo, co-author Alberto da Cruz explained that the research was conducted to inform development and industrialization policy, evaluating key commodity value chains including maize, cotton, poultry, and pigeon peas (feijão bóer).
The researcher identified a lack of reliable market price data and logistics bottlenecks as major obstacles penalizing smallholders and severing the link between farming output and agro-processing industries.
“Maize farmers lack access to real-time price information. This creates a severe disadvantage because they cannot negotiate effectively,” stated Alberto da Cruz.
Da Cruz also drew attention to transport bottlenecks that prevent produce from reaching major urban consumption centers and industrial processing plants.
“Agro-processors are not buying maize harvested in Angónia because it cannot be cost-effectively transported to Maputo,” he explained, stressing that national industrialization depends on infrastructure investments connecting rural production zones to commercial markets.
“If we genuinely intend to industrialize Mozambique, building transport and logistics infrastructure is essential,” he emphasized.
Low Productivity Traps Farmers in Poverty
Co-author Egas Daniel noted that the core challenge facing Mozambican agriculture is not land availability or workforce size, but the capacity to increase yield per unit of land and labor.
“The fundamental problem is low productivity across vast land area and extensive labor,” the researcher observed. He explained that agricultural growth has historically been driven by expanding cultivated acreage and population growth rather than yield improvements per worker or hectare.
According to Daniel, this dynamic depresses farm incomes and hinders structural economic transformation. Increasing agricultural productivity must serve as the primary catalyst to stimulate manufacturing and service sectors.
“Farmers act rationally. They do not maintain low yields by choice; the production and market risks they face remove financial incentives to scale up output,” he argued, noting that systemic risks explain persistent low production levels.
Factors highlighted in the book include transport bottlenecks, land access constraints, credit scarcity, lack of agricultural insurance, and labor market frictions. The author stressed that these interconnected issues require coordinated policy interventions.
Daniel further urged public planners to integrate climate change adaptation into agricultural policy. Cyclical floods and droughts discourage capital investment and destroy crop yields when risk-mitigation mechanisms are absent.
The researcher also advocated for market diversification and domestic value addition to reduce reliance on single export destinations, citing pigeon peas, which depend heavily on Indian import demand.
Linking Agricultural Potential to Industry
In his keynote address, Minister of Planning and Development Salim Valá stated that while Mozambique possesses immense agricultural potential, converting that potential into sustainable economic returns remains difficult.
“Our challenge is not a lack of potential, but a lack of structural linkages that convert potential into income,” he declared.
The Minister noted that agriculture employs nearly three-quarters of the national labor force but contributes approximately one-quarter of gross value added. Mozambique holds 36 million hectares of arable land—including 3 million hectares suitable for irrigation—yet only about 50,000 hectares are currently irrigated.
Salim Valá also highlighted low commercialization rates, noting that agricultural households market an average of just 12% of their total harvest.
“Increasing production without securing market access, financing, logistics, and industrial processing yields limited economic return,” he warned.
The Minister concluded that transforming the sector requires a comprehensive approach encompassing market access, infrastructure upgrades, expanded irrigation, agricultural finance, and agro-processing development.
“The economic value of agriculture is measured by the industries it feeds, the businesses it stimulates, the jobs it creates, and the markets it develops,” he affirmed.
The book provides empirical evidence and policy recommendations to guide public spending and private investment, advocating for integrated cross-sectoral planning. The authors’ central message is that Mozambique’s agricultural potential can only deliver sustainable development if systemic barriers to productivity, farm income, and industrial integration are addressed in a coordinated manner.
