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Land tenure interventions in the Pro-Poor Value Chain Development Project in the Maputo and Limpopo Corridors (PROSUL)

Countries
Mozambique
Sources
IFAD
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The Pro-Poor Value Chain Development Project (PROSUL)

The Pro-Poor Value Chain Development Project in the Maputo and Limpopo Corridors (PROSUL) is a Government Project funded by IFAD. The Project’s development objective is to increase returns to smallholder farmers from improved marketing of increased volume and quality of produce in the targeted value chains of cassava, horticulture and red meat, through improved market linkages, efficient farmer organizations and higher farmers’ share over the final added value, via interventions contributing to climate resilience, land tenure security, gender equity and nutrition improvement.

PROSUL will reach 20,350 beneficiary households, mostly economically active poor who are already involved in value chain production across 21 districts in the Southern provinces of Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MASA) coordinates the Project on behalf of the Government of Mozambique. The Agricultural Development Fund / Fundo de Desenvolvimento Agrário (FDA) is the Project Leading Agency. A designated Project Management Team (PMT) based in the FDA delegation, in Xai-Xai, Gaza province ensures the Project’s daily coordination and implementation.

During the initial phase of PROSUL in 2011 and 2012, strengthening the land rights of Project beneficiaries was identified as a fundamental objective, complementing the interventions for value chain development. In 2014, the Government started the Terra Segura initiative, aimed at facilitating the regularization of five million DUAT's and five thousand official certificates up to 2019. PROSUL is in line with government's strategies and policies, and it is contributing to Terra Segura targets and goals.

During implementation, the project updated the land tenure implementation strategy focusing on the regularization of land certificates (DUATs) for individual rural households in the cassava value chain, on community delimitations in the red meat value chain and the formation of a cadaster of irrigation schemes in the horticulture value chain.

The MASA, through FDA/Project Management Team and IFAD is pleased to share the progresses, results and lessons learnt in the implementation of land tenure interventions by sharing the intervention approach and results in each targeted value chain.

Land Tenure Security: Intervention approach strategy and results

The Project ensures the access and land tenure security for smallholder farmers, through:

1. Horticulture value chain: Distribution of land rights to Water Users Associations (WUAs) through the cadastral mapping of irrigation schemes and the registration and demarcation of plots for each member of WUAs.

The Project supported the cadastral mapping of three irrigation schemes (551 ha) targeting 428 members of WUAs (52 per cent women), in the following sites: Mafuiane (172 ha) in Namaacha district, Manguiza (20 ha) in Boane District and Moamba Block I (355 ha) in Moamba District, Maputo Province. The cadastral mapping of irrigation schemes has contributed to a structured planning and identification of individual farmer plots (i.e. information about size and management of the scheme). The Water User Association members and Management Committees are well informed about the exact areas and the fees charged for water access and use (including access to the associated infrastructure).

2. Cassava value chain: Semi-massive regularization of individual land certificates (DUATs) for cassava smallholder farmers. Overall, the Project supported the regularization and delivery of 16,333 DUATs, of which 7,106 (44 per cent) are cassava smallholder farmers and direct beneficiaries. This means that 88.8 per cent of the 8,000 households targeted by the project in the cassava value chain have benefitted from the regularization.

The land regularization interventions have contributed to improving gender mainstreaming in the cassava value chain area. A significant number of land certificates (DUATs) were issued in the name of women (38 per cent). The proportion of land certificates issued adopting co-titling mechanism is estimated at 18 per cent.

The regularization of land rights is contributing to the improvement of land use (81.5 per cent of the households); the intensification of cassava production (85.4 per cent of the households); the adoption of cassava improved technologies and good practices (76 per cent adoption rate and increase of cassava productivity from six to 20 ton/ha).

3. Red Meat Value Chain: Delimitation of communities, zoning of community natural resources and Identification and demarcation of communal grazing areas, targeting 5,600 livestock producers.

The project has invested in the delimitation and zoning of 14 communities covering a total of 175,999.81 ha (58 per cent for grazing), targeting 42,995 beneficiaries, of which 60 per cent were women.

The Natural Resources Management Committees are well informed about their natural resources, they are prepared to engage in public-private partnerships and they are also ready to manage conflicts related to land boundaries with others communities.

Disseminating good practices helps in scaling-up opportunities that can benefit different regions facing similar challenges. For this reason, the project had the opportunity to participate in the World Bank Land and Poverty Conference, Washington DC, 25-29 March 2019, and presented two scientific communications entitled (i) Land tenure security interventions of PROSUL, and (ii) The impact of land right regularization on the cassava technology adoption among smallholder farmers in Mozambique: the case of the Pro-poor Value Chain Development Project in the Maputo and Limpopo Corridors.