42% of individual farmers use certified seeds acquired through agro-dealers, representing an increase of more than 16%. 70% of the associations use certified seeds acquired through agro-dealers. This indicates an increase of almost 20%.
Farmers’ main incentive to buy certified seeds are the good germination rates and high productivity of the certified varieties, whereas the pest resistant or short cycle seeds are of less interest. Even though the majority of farmers highlight their satisfaction with the certified varieties, around 16% are dissatisfied with the very same varieties. Further investigation is needed to clarify if bad germination and low productivity is due to the certified seeds themselves or external factors such as climate and agricultural practices applied.
Even though the number of farmers using fertilisers and pesticides is still low at 30%, there was a 4% increase.
Through demo plots, high adoption rates can be observed for the use of better seeds (83%) plant spacing (75%) and soil coverage (64%), whereas drip irrigation (36%) and integrated pest control (47%) have the lowest adoption rates.
Through training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) the highest adoption rates were observed for plant spacing (81%), as well as the use of better seeds (71%) and soil coverage (69%), whereas drip irrigation (32%) and selling of inputs (26%) showed the lowest adoption rates. 98% of the farmers stated that the application of the practices learned on demo plots and during training helped them to increase their productivity.
26,6% of individual farmers have increased their annual harvest volumes by at least 50%. Part of the increase in harvest might be attributed to the FAR Programme, given that 44% of individual farmers stated the better seeds, inputs or practices as main reasons for the increase in harvest volumes.
Given that the majority of farmers are mainly subsistence farmers who only sell small shares of their harvested volumes (if they sell anything at all), the incomes generated through the FAR supported crops are low, with an average net income of 4,350 MZN/year for farmers selling part of their production. However, the association representatives earned almost double with on average 8,560 MZN/year.
79% of individual farmers and 37% of association representatives did not irrigate their plots because they lack the resources to acquire an irrigation system, and depend on rain-fed irrigation. Water sources like rivers are too far away to fetch water for irrigation. Only 21% of individual farmers and association representatives stated that they acquired an irrigation system via FAR – mainly through donations of drip irrigation systems, pedal pumps and systems for gravity irrigation.
31.5% of the beneficiaries mentioned crop diversification as well as inputs and irrigation systems as a reason to increase the cultivation area, which can be attributed to the programme activities. Only 17% of the farmers outside the programme were able to increase their area.
17.5% of FAR beneficiaries stated that their availability of food had increased since the start of the programme during on average 3.7 months per year. This compared to only around 1.5% of farmers outside the programme. One-third of FAR beneficiary farmers stated that they had increased the availability of cereals/grains as well as vegetables/legumes – representing the food groups that the FAR programme was working on.
Up to 60% of farmers were able to better mitigate and recover from the consequences of Idai and other climate hazards, largely thanks to applying practices learned via FAR, including the use of resistant seeds, crop spacing, digging channels as drainage, soil coverage, diversification of crops, crop rotation, planting bushes and the proper use of fertilisers and pesticides.
