Mozambique Climate Resilience Program

Starting with the programme across 4 pilots, the program approach is anchored around a holistic definition of climate resilience touching on key pillars at field level:

Improved water and land management

Mozambique is well enriched with natural resources, however the lack of information, knowledge, skills, poor institutional support and the lack of a common platform to discuss the problems and implement solutions are major constraints towards the optimal utilization of land and proper management of land. Usage of modern or improved technologies and irrigation facilities do not exist in most of the villages and water resources are limited in most of the areas (hand pumps are the only source of drinking water for the communities). Local or traditional techniques for conserving soil, water harvesting, etc. are not practiced by the farmer while surface water bodies are very rare in the area and, the level of awareness among the communities about surface and sub surface water management is extremely low.

Linked to water access, we can also find other relevant issues such as lack of good agricultural practices, lack of alternative livelihood options for food and lack of income diversification, as well as gender equity challenges.

A range of water intervention options by IDH ensures that farmers have access to water at the right time, ranging from water management technologies such as community water harvesting, dug wells and dams, to techniques such as soil conservation and land development through bunds and furrows to store water for longer once in the ground. In addition, the creation of water catchment areas such as open wells, ponds, reservoirs allows water to be utilized in longer periods throughout the season: this is key for spin off activities linked to 2nd and 3rd crop agriculture.

Better agricultural practices & access to agri-tools

IDH  supports farmers achieve maximum realization of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for all crops provided. For the cotton related practices under the platform, IDH is building on its existing work in the region in partnership with the Better Cotton Initiative through the Better Cotton Growth and Innovation Fund.

Delivering the knowledge on these practices is supported through a web-based solution, which is used as the tool to provide comprehensive crop advisories for all respective crops in the project area. All farmer data is mapped with their crops and is available on his/her phone. In the second year, IDH plans to engage with local technical agencies and universities to build and validate the Package of Practices for the selected crops and validate the training material by Mozambican expert agronomists.

Increased alternative livelihood opportunities

Yields of secondary crops are limited by poor agronomic techniques and lack of market access. IDH offers water and tailored extension packages to farmers s to support the growth of other crops, and concessions to secure market access. 2nd and 3rd crop production is limited to demo plots in the first year since the volume of water harvested is limited to the subset of infrastructures constructed. The first year of intervention was also used for mapping the crops. In addition, IDH assesses where there is a case for cotton concessionaires to be the off-setter or whether alternative partnerships for 2nd 3rd crop uptake is generating more value.

Poultry and goatry at the farmer level with a possible village level loose cooperative structure supported by a veterinarian support program is a good supplementary opportunity for further strengthening food security. IDH provides access to knowledge and expertise for managing the animals (building farm houses, heath care management, etc.) and animals to selected women group through concessionaire.

IDH works towards building capacity and providing access to animal farms at 3 levels:

• Community level awareness – Building awareness on improved practices on animal health management, housing and feeding through community inclusive trainings.
• Creation of women Self Help Groups (SHG) for farm maintenance –Specialized training given as well as establishment of business model for long term.
• Creation of by community veterinarian –1-2 individuals that are given in-depth training on improved practices, vaccination/de-worming, housing, management and feeding so that they can support for the SHGs and communities

Access to energy and access to information

Access to energy and information technologies is fundamental for building resilience. By harnessing low cost technologies, IDH provides solar panels at community level, coupled with appropriate implementation scheme. Access to solar energy is rooted on provision of solar energy panels and development of community level agri-entrepreneur as service providers. By linking access to energy based on a fee, and other types of energy-based services, the agri-entrepreneur receives funding to support the business.

• Knowledge partners and suppliers (solar, ICT, poultry, 2nd crop input providers) provide inputs and capacity building for service providers
• Cotton Concessionaire act as service providers to the farmers by offering the services, building the infrastructure, off-taking, etc.
• Specialized service providers directly to farmers for specific services (e.g. animal husbandry)
• Communities receive training, access to infrastructure, input, and potentially finance improve their performance, and ultimately their profitability and livelihoods.
• Local ownership to ensure adoption and continuation via institutionalization and capacity building of community-based intervention.

Cotton concessionaires

Cotton Concessionaires are the private companies that have the access to farming communities and can leverage their relationship with farmers to implement field level activities and facilitate their access to market.

The programme currently includes four partnerships with Cotton Concessionaires – Olam, San JFS, Sanam and Plexus, as implementing partners in 5 villages . They are working with cotton farmers for capacity building of farmers, provision of inputs and offtake of cotton production. As such, these companies have an existing network and organizational capacity established within their concession area to effectively connect and provide service to farmers.

Access to market have proven to be one very significant and necessary condition for successful interventions, albeit not the only one. And this is especially relevant in Sub-Saharan Africa where rural communities are not easily accessible.

Knowledge partners

They are engaged in knowledge transfer and capacity building of local implementing partners/concessionaires.

AFPRO: AFPRO is engaging with field level partners to coordinate and provide capacity building through technical guidance for the implementation of project activities.  It also undertakes development of the monitoring and evaluation framework and reporting on overall progress of the pilot.

CropIN: CropIn provides the tool which is both APP-based and web-based that records farmer practices as well as supplements  field training on different components being provided by the extension services, whether it be crop specific, animal husbandry, or weather related. It also acts as a two-way tool for the community to raise alerts and receive a response to queries raised.

Newforesight: NewForesight executes an analysis of the SDM of Plexus and an executive summary of the analysis will be shared in a public report. The SDM study serves to provide both the SDM Provider and IDH with strategic information regarding the SDM Provider’s ambition to establish direct, sustainable (sourcing) relationships with smallholder farmers. The SDM study will provide insight into the business case for the farmer and the SDM Provider and provide suggestions on how to structure the relationship most efficiently. 

Matching Private and Public Contributions:

IDH convenes public private partnerships, balancing the interests of governments, CSOs and companies. We co-finance the prototyping of new approaches that are modeled to accelerate green and inclusive growth. We co-fund projects with innovative approaches, where private funding is also available. For the Mozambique Climate Resilience Platform, the private partners are contributing 40 to 60 per cent of the costs for their pilot projects.

With regards to public funding, as of today, the Climate Resilience Program is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Mozambique. At a ceremony in Maputo in November 2017, Ambassador Pascalle Grotenhuis signed a three-year grant and sponsorship agreement for the Program.

The Netherlands has been one of the first countries to effectively link the policy areas aid and trade. “Aid and trade have to go hand in hand if we want to move forward towards sustainable development”, said Ambassador Grotenhuis. “The Netherlands believes that we need all partners: government, companies, civil society and trade unions working together to create jobs, to make trade fairer, more inclusive and more sustainable for generations.”

“I am very happy with the activities done by the Muape project as it is bringing very good impact. The project is providing safe water for 2,845 families. Before, families were collecting drinking water from traditional well, the water was not clean and they were suffering a lot from diseases such as stomach pain and cholera. But this year we are in the end of rain season  and we didn’t have any case of cholera at our community.”

Vicent Mario Sauje, traditional leader of Muape 

“Before the project, having water for consumption during the dry season was very difficult. The project shows us how to collect and store the water that was being lost during the rain season, the installed well can provide drinking water over the year and we can use water from check dam an from ponds to irrigate our field and for animal consumption.”

Feliciano Antonio, 60 years old cotton production leader at Palacua village since 2002 

“I earned 9,000.00 MT after selling my production and also could provide some vegetable for my family consumption. With this money, I could pay my children fees, buy uniform and others material needed at school. In 2018, I would like to increase my vegetable area up to 2500 m² so that next year my children can continue go to school.”

Disciplo Victor, member of second crop group under the Olam Project 

“My family was one the beneficiary of the solar panel and model for implementation. I am very happy because I can use the solar panel to produce light to illuminate houses during the night, recharge cell phones, listen to radio and music, and provide services of cell phone recharge to my neighbour. So far, I am recharging 2-3 cell phone per day, collecting 20.00 to 30.00 MT. To maximize the utility of the solar panel, I bought a DVD and television to project cinema during weekends at my home. The cost to watch the cinema will be 10 Mt per person.”

Ramalho Estefano, Plexus Project beneficiary 

“We are 14 women in the group and we received 2 chicken each. After 1 year I have got 6 new born plus 2 chickens that I have received from the project. We also started our savings group, with weekly meetings and contributions from each for money to be saved: so far, we managed to save almost 27,000.00 MT for one year. By the end of this month, we are going to divide the saved money, and I will receive almost 4,000.00 MT. With the money saved I will buy some bags of wheat and increase my bread business so that I can have capacity to save more money this year. Also, I am going to give back 2 chickens received from the project to allow other women to start their animal husbandry activities, and I will keep the 6 chickens to continue multiply.”

Salima Paulo, member of woman self- help group and Plexus Project beneficiary 

Agriculture accounts as one of the major contributors to the Mozambican economy (24.8% of GDP) and supports 81% of the employment force. As climate change is becoming an increasing threat, the Mozambique Climate Resilience Program is working towards building resilience of the farmers from climate risks and ensuring a sustainable livelihood for them through a multi-pillar strategy.

Becoming a part of Mozambique Climate Resilience Program will give you a voice in bringing about the change in the livelihoods of farmers in one of the most climate-affected regions in the world.

Join the program or link with us for partnerships at project level, the objective of which are closely linked to UN Sustainability Development Goals.

By joining our community of change drivers, you are helping in creating a more sustainable future for the millions of farmers in the country.