The government of Magude district, Maputo province, in the south of the country, has revealed that it has activated the district technical committee and the respective local disaster risk management committees as a way of positioning itself against the threat of the El Nino phenomenon predicted in the 2023-2024 climate forecast.

The district has already completed the action plan, a key instrument for implementing actions on the ground, given the projections that show that more than 710 families, corresponding to nearly 4,000 people, are at risk of food insecurity, in addition to just over 1,000 hectares of agricultural production that could be affected.

The data was revealed this Wednesday in Magude by the district administrator, Lázaro Bambamba, as part of the monitoring of the actions underway to mitigate the drought and the above-normal rainfall forecast for that corner of the country.

"With regard to preparing the district of Magude to deal with the El Nino phenomenon, we have activated the district technical committee and, at the level of administrative posts and localities, we have also decided to activate local committees, in coordination with agricultural associations and cattle breeders. We took this decision because we don't want to improvise or run around trying to make ends meet," said the administrator, quoted by AIM.

According to the administrator, the administrative posts of Mapulanguene, Motaze and Mahele are at risk of drought in Magude, where the severe drought that occurred in 2016 killed more than 2,000 head of cattle, as well as damaging agricultural activity, creating a crisis of food insecurity and chronic malnutrition.

Still in the context of mitigating the impacts of drought, providing water for both community consumption and livestock watering, Magude has benefited from the second phase of the Drought Recovery and Resilience project, in which four excavated reservoirs have already been built, making a total of eight, as well as multi-purpose systems.

The local government has advised producers to bet on short-cycle crops, in order to take advantage of the rain that fell recently, before the effects of the El Nino phenomenon, as well as encouraging drought-tolerant crops, namely cassava and sweet potatoes, a factor that challenges the authorities to invest in the agro-processing chain.

"We're talking about a district whose flagship is the production of red meat, so watering cattle is a priority," he said.