Embracing innovation: How agricultural institutes support rural communities in northern Mozambique

In the context of the promotion of organic and regenerative farming technologies, the AMECANE project, currently in second phase, has established partnerships with the Agricultural Institutes of Majune (IAM) and Lichinga (IAL), located in the district and city with the same names, respectively, which has enabled the training of students and instructors from these institutions on effective microorganisms (EM1) - a type of agricultural biofertilizer which is combined it with a range of waste organic matter.

Since then, the two technical-vocational education institutions have integrated this innovation into their training curricula, testing it on different crops. But more than that, the EM1 technology is being made available to community farmers in order to both improve their production and yields, thus leading to its upscale and dissemination nationwide.

A concrete example of this alliance between academic the project, institutions and communities can be seen in the district of Majune, where students from the local Agrarian Institute also use EM1 and its by-products (Bokashi) in demo plots to grow a variety of crops, particularly tomatoes, cabbage, onions and maize. Parts of the harvest are for internal consumption by the students and trainers, while the rest goes to market.

This approach, in which students in hands-on classes grow food, is contributing to the retention of school pupils, as well as reducing the institutes' dependence on the government budget.

“As part of the partnership with HELVETAS, we have integrated training on the application of EM1 into a module we call 'Agricultural Research Technology' and we are now teaching the communities so that they can also adopt it to reduce production costs, since organic fertilizers are much cheaper and can be prepared locally with the remains of various organic and inorganic materials. Furthermore, although Niassa province does not have cashew production potential, we still apply EM1 in the cashew nurseries and the results are promising, as we have now 4 hectares of cashew seedlings at the moment,” said Armando António Munguambe, IAM director.

Three hundred kilometers beyond the Majune district, towards Lake Niassa, is the city of Lichinga, where the local Agricultural Institute (IAL) has also introduced EM1 technology into its curriculum. Here, the demo plots - set up by the students during practical lessons - are in a low-lying area, where the crops are irrigated by gravity from the river located next to the plots. IAL is training and technically assisting around 200 producers from surrounding communities on how to use biofertilizers based on EM1.

We harvest 10kg of tomatoes per plant

“We have a solid foundation in teaching the composting technique - which is another organic production method. When we engaged with HELVETAS, the training that resulted from this partnership allowed us to broaden our understanding of other soil fertilization technologies, such as applying EM1 and its by-products. We've been getting very satisfactory results, for example, we're harvesting up to 10 kg of tomatoes per plant, compared to an average of 5 kg that we used to produce in our demo plots,” Almiro Hugo Cardoso - agricultural technician, trainer at IAL.