Review of African Political Economy Vol. 39, No. 131, March 2012, 161–170 BRIEFING An exposition of development failures in Mozambique Benedito Cunguara∗ empirical evidence suggests that this is not happening. About 55% of the popu- Centre for Development Research, BOKU lation lived below the national poverty University, Vienna, Austria line in 2008–9 (Ministry of Planning and Development [MPD] 2010), well above the target of 45% established in PARPA II Introduction (Government of Mozambique 2006). It should not be a surprise that poverty Additionally, there has been ‘little substan- reduction is the main development goal in tive progress’ with regard to chronic child Mozambique. For almost three decades malnutrition in recent years (UNICEF (and counting), the United Nations Devel- 2006, p. 12). Yet, between 2002 and 2008 opment Programme (UNDP) and the Mozambique had an annual economic World Bank have consistently ranked growth rate of about 8%. Mozambique as one of the poorest The apparent paradox of rising poverty, countries in the world. A sharp decline in food insecurity, and chronic child malnu- the official poverty incidence statistics, trition despite economic growth is because from 69% in 1996–97 to 54%, is indicative growth is concentrated in few industries, of significant development strides. Indeed, mainly in ‘mega projects’ in the energy many donor agencies take Mozambique as and mineral sector (such as natural gas, alu- an example to follow in sub-Saharan minium, heavy sands, and charcoal). For Africa. Mozambique is a ‘donor darling’, example, the Mozambican Aluminium writes Hanlon (2009), and international Smelter (Mozal) alone accounts for 60% aid has been on the rise. However, the of the country’s total exports. These mega food riots that erupted in 2008 and 2010, projects create few local jobs, have few and the official poverty statistics showing local linkages, benefit from huge tax an increase in the incidence, depth, and exemptions and rely heavily on imported severity of poverty between 2002–03 and goods, and only a small fraction of their 2008–09 serve as a sombre reminder that production is consumed locally. Mean- many challenges remain. while, both the local government and the The national strategy to reduce poverty, international community have so far locally known as PARPA1, governs the chosen a non-interventionist policy for the efforts to address development challenges agricultural sector. Nevertheless the impor- such as poverty and food insecurity. tance of agriculture both as a source of PARPA hinges on the neoliberal theory, employment and government revenue is which posits that the benefits of economic considerable. The underperformance of growth would trickle down to the poor the agricultural sector is among the main (Romer 1990). However, a wide range of reasons for persistent poverty and food ∗Email: [email protected] ISSN 0305-6244 print/ISSN 1740-1720 online # 2012 ROAPE Publications Ltd http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2012.657881 http://www.tandfonline.com 162 B. Cunguara insecurity (Ministry of Planning and Devel- farmers’ participation in the output opment 2010). This calls for a change in market, and how it can foster the adoption development policies, and therefore a of improved technologies. The impact of search for an alternative development distrust between government officials is model that might be more effective in redu- also covered. Finally, the paper concludes cing poverty and food insecurity. with some policy remarks. In medical sciences, the search for an effective antidote requires a profound knowledge of the poison. Similarly, a Decline in agricultural productivity search for effective development policies In Africa, agriculture contributes a large must begin with an understanding of percentage of total revenues. In Mozambi- what successful policies require: avoiding que, about 80% of the population is failures. Therefore, this paper analyses employed in agriculture (including a some of the failures in development pol- segment of the urban population), which icies in Mozambique. The purpose of this contributes a quarter of the GDP (Instituto paper is both to identify development fail- Nacional de Estatı´stica 2004). Agriculture ures and to discuss alternatives to overcome is therefore an important engine of poverty them. reduction. Indeed, massive poverty The remainder of the paper proceeds as reduction between 1996 and 2002 was poss- follows. The next section discusses the fail- ible mainly due to growth in agricultural pro- ures that resulted in a decline in agricultural duction (Simleret al. 2004, Fox, Bardasi and productivity between 1996 and 2008. This van den Broeck 2005, Arndt, James and is followed by a discussion on dispropor- Simler 2006). Data from the national agri- tional aid for the agricultural sector, as cultural survey (locally known as TIA2) well as the importance of ensuring timely show an increase in the use of modern tech- availability of funds. Then the paper dis- nologies (Figure 1), which might have cusses the need for the use of accurate created the illusion of growth in agricultural data in estimating the gross domestic productivity. Empirical evidence, however, profit (GDP). Next, the paper elaborates points to a decline in production of many on the effect of inadequate support to crops per hectare and per adult household Figure 1. Percentage use of selected technologies by year. Source: Trabalho de Inque´rito Agrı´cola 2008. Review of African Political Economy 163 member during that period (Boughton et al. unmotivated. In the headquarters in 2006). Maputo, the Ministry of Agriculture lost The already low level of provision of critical human resources. For instance, extension services show a downward trend within the Directorate of Economics, since 2005 because extension workers did several heads of department resigned. Fur- not have either vehicles or fuel to reach thermore, the Department of Policy Analy- farmers. The supply of price information to sis, once a functional and active unit in farmers also declined, despite evidence indi- terms of producing policy briefs and cating its positive and significant impact on research outreach, was reduced at one farmers’ incomes (Mather 2009). The point to only two employees from its pre- already low use of chemical fertilisers, vious team of more than 11 policy analysts, animal traction, and access to credit also a decline of more than 80%. show a decline in recent years. It is also The increase in poverty levels was revealing that animal traction is not even caused in part by a decline in agricultural mentioned in PARPA II, and little is being productivity. In 2008, production of food done to overcome the occurrence of tsetse per capita and per hectare were lower than flies on cattle, causing endemic disease in that in 2002 (Ministry of Agriculture regions of high agricultural potential in [MINAG] 2010), suggesting that agricul- central and northern provinces. The central tural productivity shows a negative trend provinces show a dramatic increase in since 1996. Therefore, the increase in agri- poverty levels, from 46% in 2002–03 to cultural production observed between 1996 60% in 2008–09 (Ministry of Planning and 2002 was caused by an expansion of and Development 2010). cropped area (Figure 2) and not by growth Within the Ministry of Agriculture, in agricultural productivity. budget cuts may have negatively affected Meanwhile, poverty levels increased some employees. Recently, there were cuts between 2002–03 and 2008–09 mainly in fuel and telephone allowances and other due to a decline in both landholding size subsidies. Many employees of the Ministry and agricultural productivity. Expansion of of Agriculture became discontented and cropped area might have been possible in Figure 2. Poverty reduction versus total landholding size. Source: Trabalho de Inque´rito Agrı´cola 2008. See also Inque´rito aos Orc¸amentos Familiares, the consumption expenditure survey conducted in 2008–9 from which the official poverty estimates are derived. 164 B. Cunguara the 1990s because farmers had been cultivat- decades up to 2010 (World Bank 2006). ing significantly smaller fields (due to war), Growth in absolute terms, however, might land was relatively more abundant, and it not be as large because of the incredibly was still possible to expand land using a low base from which progress began. hand-hoe. However, at present many small- According to the World Bank, in 1992 holders might have reached the threshold Mozambique was ranked the poorest where further expansion of cropped area country in the world (Plank 2003); 17 would require other tilling methods (such years later Mozambique had a GDP rank as animal traction) or the use of hired of 169 out of 177 countries (UNDP labour, but the poor cannot afford either. 2009). In addition, about 51% of the gov- It is hard to sufficiently emphasise the ernment budget is allocated to salaries and importance of growth in agricultural pro- subsidies, which represents nearly 10% of duction to reduce poverty, whether its low GDP (MediaFax 2010). It is indis- through expansion of cropped area or putable that Mozambique needs inter- growth in agricultural productivity. The national aid at the current stage of the third poverty assessment report on Mozam- development process. Indeed, foreign aid bique concurs with other studies in arguing to Mozambique corresponds to 15% of that additional success in reducing poverty GDP, compared to the African average of depends on growth in agricultural pro- 4% of GDP, making it one of the top recei- ductivity (MPD 2010). Yet the government vers of aid in the world (World Bank 2006). chooses not to reward and retain qualified Meanwhile, there is also agreement on employees that would provide great latitude the role of agriculture as one of the main for policy change. Furthermore, the local engines of poverty reduction in Mozambi- government has not given a high priority que (MPD 2010). Yet, and unfortunately to agriculture, and employees in the agri- for the poor whose livelihoods depend cultural sector are apparently unable to markedly on crop and livestock production, lobby the state and donors for resources.