More than 200,000 families in eight districts of Tete province, in the center of the country, are food insecure due to the El Niño phenomenon.

The El Niño phenomenon has already caused the destruction of 257,754.7 hectares of various crops in Tete province this year, according to the newspaper "O País".

Drought, pests and diseases meant that there was little production, leaving peasant families in a situation of food insecurity.

Marara, Changara, Doa and Mutarara are considered to be the districts with the most critical cases of food insecurity.

"Of these areas that we had planned, because of the drought, which, until now, although we have launched the campaign, we still haven't had any rain, except on the plateau. We have lost around 257,754 hectares and these hectares have affected around 231,920 families, who have been left with these lost areas throughout this campaign," said Odete Naftal, the provincial director of agriculture, quoted by the newspaper.

Naftal said that in view of the imminent food crisis, various measures are already underway to mitigate the situation in the eight districts.

"We allocate some inputs there, such as corn and bean seeds, together with our partners. And we have quantified around 17 tons of bean seeds (...)," he added.