The government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADER), will issue specific technical recommendations for farmers and livestock producers in the family sector to mitigate the possible effects of the El-Niño weather phenomenon, which is set to hit the central and southern regions of the country from next month..

According to Hiten Janlal, who is an agronomist at the National Directorate of Agriculture, MADER has already defined a set of agro-technical recommendations that will be disseminated to communities in the areas to be affected by the phenomenon, in order to reduce the data.

"For the livestock sector, taking into account the drought forecasts, we will have to sensitize producers to the use of mineral supplements for feeding cattle, since we will have pasture problems," said Janlal, speaking last Wednesday during the tenth National Forum on Climate Anticipation, which took place in Maputo.

On the other hand, for the production of food crops, the recommendations are, in particular, to delay the sowing season a little.

"We're saying that for the southern region there should be late sowings, not in a normal season, but late and staggered, with short-cycle varieties, i.e. those that mature in 60 days," said the source.

For the central zone, where drought is also expected, the recommendation is for "normal and staggered sowings, with short to medium cycle varieties", while for the north, the recommendation is for "late sowings, since we have a good chance of having a satisfactory water index for the second period of the rainy season", he explained.