Common beans: Benefits for farmers engaging in market-oriented production

In areas like Dororo, in Manica district, Central Mozambique, commercialization of common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is one of the most important strategies for farmers to improve their livelihoods. Young farmers and women especially invest in common beans as a way to build their assets and secure their family needs. Engaging in an Innovation Platform (IP), these farmers have learned that they can benefit more from common beans. Farmers observed how the integration of legume crops (common beans and mucuna) and livestock for soil fertility management through crop rotation, cover crops and manure reduces the dependence on external inputs. Combined with draft power animal management this has increased productivity and production of common beans. The IP has empowered farmers’ participation in markets. Farmers became more organized. Increased production and productivity allowed farmers to sell larger volumes in bulk. They now collectively decide at what time they would sell their produce and at what price, expecting 50% higher revenues than what they would get by selling individually. This leaflet illustrates common bean production and market practices generated through demonstrations in the MOREP project. They are useful for farmers in similar environments like in Manica district

Sustainable intensification of smallholder farming in central Mozambique: Benefits from better integration of crops and livestock

The Government of Mozambique gives particular importance to strategies for sustainable intensification of agriculture in the smallholder-farming sector, accounting for more than 95% of the total agricultural land. Better integration of crops and livestock is key to sustaining vital smallholder farming, rewarding higher agricultural production and improving the overall wellbeing of smallholder farms, especially in provinces like Tete and Manica, with high potential for crops and livestock. Farmers with animal draft power can cultivate larger parts of their land in time and are thereby able to also produce more feed, critical for improving animal performance. Better-managed and fed animals reproduce more, provide better draft services and avail manure as important source of locally available organic fertilizer. Farmers thereby increase production at reduced costs and risk, overall farm net returns increase more than through single technologies. These benefits can be harvested over large areas, and with different agro-ecological potential. Farmers with cattle cultivated more land than those without cattle: in Dororo, Manica province, with high agro-ecological potential, 4.4 ha as compared to 2.9 ha cropland; in drought prone Marara, Tete province, 3.1 ha of as compared to 2.1 ha. On average farmers with cattle made 20% higher cereal yields in Dororo, and 30% higher cereal yields in Marara. Yet 52% and 45 % of the households don’t have cattle in Dororo and Marara respectively. This leaflet illustrates the benefits from better integration of crops and livestock. We describe forage production and draft power animal management as two complementary technologies critical for sustainable intensification of smallholder farms, demonstrated in the MOREP project. These technologies are useful for farmers in similar environments like in Tete and Manica provinces