Mozambique will reduce the budget for the agricultural sector next year, compared to the volume it allocated this year.

According to the proposed State Budget for 2024, which is being debated in Parliament, the sector will receive around 40.4 billion Meticais, which corresponds to 10.5% of total public spending.

According to Revista Terra, compared to the current year, the budget allocation for 2024 will be reduced by almost seven billion Meticais, partly as a result of a decrease in external resources of around 10 billion.

This year, the country's external resources amounted to just over 28 billion Meticais, which represented 46% of the sector's total budget, a volume that has now been reduced to 18.5 billion, corresponding to 20%.

Despite the drop in allocated resources, the government forecasts a growth in agricultural production of around 5.7%.

According to the proposed Economic and Social Plan for next year, the country plans to produce just over three million tons of cereals, 612,216 tons of pulses, 291,609 tons of oilseeds, 3,986,936 tons of vegetables and around eight million tons of roots and tubers.

According to the document, the increase in production will be influenced by the growth of the production area by around 2%, the number of families practicing agriculture, investment in new areas of commercial agriculture and the "increase in the number of families with access to means of production within the framework of the integration of family farming into different production chains, from 316,235 to 455,463".

In terms of irrigated production areas, the proposal also indicates an increase from 18,093 to 21,576 hectares "driven by the upgrading of irrigated land".