RE SEARCH Mozambique can and must keep potato growing inside its own country T he potato is already a reasonably important crop in Mozambique. At any rate, it contributes substantially to food security and the economy, especially in the northern highlands around the Zambezi valley. The national production of this food is approx. 120,000 tons, which is grown on approx. 10,000 hectares. Ninety percent of this acreage is in Tsangano and Angonia, two districts in the Tete province. In the winter, there’s also some potato growing in the south of the country. It’s dryer there so it needs irrigation. In addition to its own production, the country also imports around 130,000 tons of table potatoes from neighbouring country South Africa. These imported potatoes mainly go to the markets and supermarkets in the capital city of Maputo and to the various catering companies in the country that provide food to mineworkers. The caterers have a clear preference for the whitefleshed Mondial variety, originally a pure Dutch variety. Still expensive The northern region of Mozambique exports 20,000 tons of the 120,000 tons of its own produce to the northern neighbouring country of Malawi. This means that the national consumption is 230,000 tons. For most consumers the potato is an expensive food, more a luxury vegetable really. They pay around 25 eurocents per kilogram when they live in the production areas, but sometimes twice as much in the regional capital of Tete, where the consumer pays a price per kilogram that is comparable to onions and tomatoes. Rice and wheat flour cost even more, but they contain a great deal more nutrients per kilogram, for the potato contains 80 percent of water, and the tomato even 90 percent. Seed from consumption potatoes From the total quantity of seed – approx. 20,000 tons – which the growers use as planting stock, most comes from the previous consumption crops. Small farmers only occasionally buy seed from growers of the better seed potato crops. A consumption grower in Zambezi told me that he only renews his seed once in three years. The method he uses is to pick out the biggest tubers from a number of big plants, which he plants the following year. The national Seed Company SEMOC purchases 100 tons of seed of the BP1 variety in South Africa, plants them in 40 hectares and, via the information service, sells 800 tons annually to growers and growers’ associations. The IIAM National Agricultural If the country knew its own market better, it could make its own production and food supply much more profitable. 32 Potato World 2014 • number 4 Pagina 71
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