The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development says that more than 16 million Mozambicans have their food security guaranteed, but there is no consensus on this figure because there is still a significant percentage of the population that is extremely vulnerable to chronic and acute food insecurity.

Celso Correia, speaking at the presentation of the results of the post-harvest food security assessment-2022 in Maputo, acknowledged that around one million Mozambicans need urgent food aid.

The government official, apparently reacting to criticism from some civil society organizations for having said in Rome that more than 90% of Mozambicans have three meals a day, stressed that more than 16 million people have their food security guaranteed.

Meanwhile, Mariam Abbas, coordinator of the Food Security department at the Rural Observatory Organization (OMR), told VOA that there is still a significant percentage of the Mozambican population vulnerable to chronic and acute food insecurity.

Furthermore, Abbas questions whether current public policies promote a diet and meals that are nutritionally adequate and sufficient in quality and quantity.

"Can these policies solve the problem of hunger in Mozambique?" asks Mariam Abbas.

For the social activist, the high rates of poverty, chronic malnutrition and food insecurity associated with economic and social imbalances, which culminate in low levels of per capita income and human development, show that they are not.

She notes that in general, current public policies, particularly those in the agricultural sector, have proved to be inadequate and exclusionary, i.e. not adapted to the local context and reality, adding that these policies have mostly benefited economic elites, aimed at responding to private economic interests, economic elites and external markets, which do not aim to solve the problem of hunger and food insecurity.

Mariam Abbas emphasizes that the quest to improve food security in the country requires public policies geared towards the internal market, adapted to local needs, with small farmers as the main beneficiaries of the policy and based on the principles of food sovereignty.

During the presentation of the results of the 2022 post-harvest food security assessment, Celso Correia accused the Foundation for Community Development (FDC), owned by social activist and former first lady Graça Machel, of wanting to perpetuate an image of poverty in Mozambique.