On Monday in Nampula, the development agencies of the United States of America and Switzerland signed a memorandum of understanding worth 32.2 million dollars to promote agriculture in the Nacala and Cabo Delgado Corridor in northern Mozambique.

Called FTF Premier-Oholo (PRO), the program will be implemented between January 2024 and June 2027, covering Pemba (Cabo Delgado); the districts of Nampula, Nacala, Meconta, Malema (Nampula); Alto Molócuè and Gúruè (Zambézia) and Cuamba, in Niassa province.

The document, quoted by AIM, was initialed by the director of the United States Agency for Development (USAID) in Mozambique, Helen Pataki, and the head of cooperation at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Ilaria Dali, in the presence of the provincial governor, Manuel Rodrigues, and the ambassadors of the two partner countries accredited in Maputo.

USAID is providing 25.5 million dollars for the Feed the Future-Premier project and SDC is disbursing 6.7 million dollars for the Oholo project.

The partners in this program plan to benefit 112,000 people, 50% women and 40% young people, create 2,600 jobs and increase 30% beneficiaries' incomes.

"The support covers the value chains of food products such as soybeans, corn, peanuts, peas, cassava, beans, cashews, sesame and poultry," says the document.

On the occasion, the governor of Nampula province, who hosted the event, said that the memorandum that created the partnership project between USAID and the SDC is a formal commitment with legal value by two partners who are committed to complementing the government's actions.

"We believe that the success of the project is partly dependent on the sharing of information between the implementation team and local governments, including the provincial government. We also expect joint planning and monitoring of actions as a way of ensuring a collective journey and strengthening the ownership of the project by local government entities," he noted.

For her part, USAID Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman emphasized that in the 16 years of the Feed the Future initiative's existence, some valuable lessons have been learned.

"One of the lessons is that successful coordination between donors, like today's, allows us to expand our impact. The PRO partnership between USAID and Swiss Development Cooperation will help farmers and entrepreneurs across the agricultural value chain move from subsistence farming to a market-based system."

Meanwhile, the Swiss Ambassador to Mozambique, Alain Gaschen, stressed the satisfaction of the timely collaboration with the United States on this project, but above all the fact that it has been supporting the northern region for almost half a century for its economic and social development in the areas of health, decentralization, private sector development, agriculture and finance and vocational training.