In Zambézia, there is a prospect of a good agricultural campaign in the Nicoadala district, with the emphasis on rice, a flagship crop. Nicoadala has 40,000 hectares of a total of nearly 42,000 hectares already ploughed. and expects to produce more than 145,000 tons of rice this year.

Nicoadala has around 42,000 small-scale farmers, and rice growing is practiced in three irrigated areas: Mucelo, Ilalane and Muziva, all under a dryland regime.

The Mucelo and Ilalane irrigation schemes have not been operational for quite some time, lacking even pumping stations and irrigation channels.

Meanwhile, Cyclone Freddy destroy the entire US$1 million World Bank investment in the Muziva irrigated area, which had already been rehabilitated and handed over provisionally. But the farmers are still eager and hope for a good harvest. Mina Damião’s smile reveals this fact.

“I have proof that I will produce this year, but I don’t even know how many tons,” he said, highlighting that, in terms of production fields, everything has been going well.

“Before, we suffered a bit from the sun. When we sowed seeds, they didn’t come out, they didn’t germinate, now everything is fine. I have a hectare here,” he continued. From Mucelo, men and women arrive and leave in open-body “My Love” cars. At the time the report was produced, there were a couple of civil servants at their “machamba” taking advantage of the rain to plant out rice.

“We come here on the weekend because we are public servants. We don’t have much time to come here. Sometimes we only come on Saturdays and Sundays,” said Jonas Elias, who added that, despite it raining, the water was receding somewhat. “For those who have time for this activity, it will have to have results,” he stressed.

Maria da Conceição, also a farmer, hopes to produce around one ton of rice per hectare a on her “machamba”.

“For those who can follow the season well, a ton comes out without any problems. It just needs to rain, that’s all. But that rain is from production, not these recent cyclone rains,” she explains. Rain a blessing to some, a curse to others.

District director of economic activities in Nicoadala, Zélia Sabão, says that, after a period of water shortage, it had rained and there was a prospect of a good rice harvest. “The producers were sowing but had to stop due to the intense sun. Then they sowed again and then we had a cumulative rainfall of 450 ml. This helped rice and corn producers, but we also had this heavy rain,” he says.

Sabão expects as much as 1.9 tons of yield per hectare. “For the rice area, we have 40,732 hectares, and we are expecting a production of 145,632 tons. But also, globally, we have a cultivated area of 874,000 hectares, and we expect to have a global production of 366,832 tons in the district,” Sabão explained.

While the passage of tropical depression Jude has complicated the lives of some communities in the Mucelo irrigation area, in Nicoadala, the peasant families are happy with it, and expect good rice production.

Published Date: March 18, 2025