Synopsis: Why Did Mozambique’s public extension halt the implementation of the National Agrarian Extension Program (PRONEA)?

CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

DSGD; PIM

IFPRI1; CRP2; MozSSP

Non-PR

Project paper

Agriculture plays a crucial role in food security and poverty reduction in Mozambique, contributing on average around 25 percent of the country’s gross domestic product during the 2007–2010 period. However, despite the considerable agroecological potential of the country and the need for increased production, agricultural productivity in Mozambique remains low. The prevailing gap between domestic food production and demand as well as lagging exports pose significant challenges. As part of efforts to address those challenges, the government and other agriculture-sector stakeholders recognized the crucial role of extension services in increasing productivity. In 2007 they launched what was to be an eight-year national extension program, the National Agrarian Extension Program (PRONEA), to be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture’s National Directorate of Agrarian Extension (MINAG-DNEA).