It is estimated that 64 percent of the Mozambique population is food insecure. The prevalence is higher in the southern region (75 percent).Mozambique net importer of food. Total annual cereal import requirements average 0.89 million tons (0.14 million of maize, 0.39 of rice and 0.36 of wheat). Mozambique must also import substantial quantities of meat and livestock products. Despite good land and water availability, much of the food system relies on smallholder farmers which is vulnerable to natural disasters, exacerbating food insecurity challenges.

Health factors

Health in Mozambique is affected by the food insecurity of the country. According to the 2009 Human Development Report of the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

, about 55 percent of the population of

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

is living in poverty, nearly half is illiterate, 40 percent is undernourished, only 47 percent have access to safe water, and there is a standing

life expectancy Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average time an organism is expected to live, based on the year of its birth, current age, and other demographic factors like sex. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth ...

at birth of only 48 years. Mozambique ranked 165th out of 169 countries in the

human development index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, wh ...

. Much of this is a result of the food insecurity in the country. The country has one of the highest

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

prevalence rates in the world. The prevalence of the HIV/AIDS virus in Mozambique is a further point of

vulnerability Vulnerability refers to "the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally." A window of vulnerability (WOV) is a time frame within which defensive measures are diminished, com ...

for poor rural households, aggravating poverty and

malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues ...

levels. These factors put the country’s agricultural production at risk.

Farming practices

With more than 80 percent of its population dependent on agriculture for

livelihood A person's livelihood (derived from ''life-lode'', "way of life"; cf. OG ''lib-leit'') refers to their "means of securing the basic necessities (food, water, shelter and clothing) of life". Livelihood is defined as a set of activities essential t ...

, Mozambique’s

food security Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World ...

can be extremely volatile. 90% of the land is made up of farms of or less. Large-scale productive farming is virtually non-existent. Mozambique suffers from multiple plagues. The most devastating by far for agriculture is the red locust, which is endemic in the Pungwe basin.

Natural disaster

Mozambique is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters such as

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

s and

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

s, with a total of 15 over the last 25 years. These events greatly damaged the rural sector and the country’s overall economy. For example, the floods of 2000 affected some 2 million people, while the droughts of 1994 and 1996 affected 1.5 million people in the southern and central parts of the country.The World Bank. Mozambique Agricultural Development Strategy Stimulating Smallholder Agricultural Growth, February 23, 2006 Cyclones in Mozambique occur during the cropping season, from October to April. For example, in February 2007, Cyclone Flávio caused widespread damage in Inhambane,

Sofala Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Mwenemutapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique. It was founded by Somali merchants. This name w ...

and Manica provinces. The poor are particularly vulnerable to weather-induced risks simply by virtue of their poverty. Poor households have few assets to sell and their consumption is already low, so in times of scarcity they do not have much to buffer them from food insecurity. Most households have little income or real food security, and women-headed households have even less. Mozambique has a relatively well-developed system of

disaster A disaster is a serious problem occurring over a short or long period of time that causes widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources ...

preparedness Preparedness is a research-based set of actions that are taken as precautionary measures in the face of potential disasters. Preparedness is an important quality in achieving goals and in avoiding and mitigating negative outcomes. There are differ ...

plans at the district level. Donor-funded projects related to the National

Early Warning An early warning system is a warning system that can be implemented as a chain of information communication systems and comprises sensors, event detection and decision subsystems for early identification of hazards. They work together to for ...

System help the government cope with food insecurity.

References

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Bibliography

* Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP). Special Report Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to Mozambique, 12 August 2010. Text Online: http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/ak350e/ak350e00.htm#3 * United Nations Development Program (UNDP). International Human Development Indicators. Text Online: http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/ * Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Nutrition Country Profile for Mozambique. Text Online: http://www.fao.org/ag/AGN/nutrition/moz_en.stm * The World Bank. Mozambique Agricultural Development Strategy Stimulating Smallholder Agricultural Growth, February 23, 2006. Text Online: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/MOZAMBIQUEEXTN/Resources/Moz_AG_Strategy.pdf * The World Bank. Mozambique at a glance, 2/25/2011. Text Online: https://web.archive.org/web/20110721020914/http://devdata.worldbank.org/AAG/moz_aag.pdf Society of Mozambique

Health factors

Farming practices

Natural disaster

See also

References

Bibliography