The Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries, Roberto Albino, announced this Thursday (09) a rigorous offensive against the sale of uncertified seeds on the national market.

Speaking at the opening of the first meeting of the Agricultural Sector Coordination Committee in Maputo, he expressed concern about the growing presence of counterfeit seeds, known in the country as "painted seeds", which are placed on the market as if they were certified.

Cited by Terra MagazineHe warned that this practice, which he considers harmful to producers and to the credibility of the certification system, has contributed to low agricultural productivity and to farmers' distrust of the use of improved inputs.

In response, he announced the creation of agricultural inputs inspection services, a structure that will have reinforced inspection powers to combat bad practices and guarantee greater transparency in the trade of seeds and other strategic inputs.

On the same occasion, Roberto Albino called for cooperation partners to be better aligned with the government's new vision and strategy for agricultural development.

After presenting the new priorities and guidelines of the APRM for the current cycle of governance, he stressed the importance of harmonizing external interventions with national guidelines in order to avoid dispersion and waste of resources.

For the government official, the new strategy puts food production at the center of priorities and adopts the market-oriented "agriculture as a business" approach as its axis.

This is a perspective that, according to Roberto Albino, should be accompanied by an approach in which the partners adjust the focus of their support, giving priority to development funding and technical assistance, while the implementation of projects should be left to the government and the private sector.

With a current portfolio of more than a hundred externally funded projects, the minister called on donors to "reduce the number of implementers and strengthen technical assistance" in order to maximize the impact of the available resources.

On the eve of the start of the 2025-2026 agricultural season - the first under the full responsibility of the current Executive - the partners expressed their willingness to continue supporting the country, with a portfolio of investments whose total amount we have not yet been able to ascertain.

 

(Photo DR)