Mozambique - Drought Recovery and Agriculture Resilience Project (DRARP)

General

The Drought Recovery and Climate Resilience Project is an integrated operation to strengthen the capacity of the rural communities to address the inter-linked challenges of climate change, rural poverty, food insecurity and land degradation through the provision of water harvesting infrastructure, and improving food production and marketing activities as well as capacity building for the affected communities. This project consists of three approaches for scaling up agriculture water infrastructure development through: (1) small irrigation schemes, (ii) construction and installation of water harvesting structures and (iii) installation of water treatment plants with desalination systems powered by solar panel systems. The DRARP is a critical intervention as the effects and impacts of climate change are already being felt due to erratic and inadequate rainfall patterns and declining on-farm productivity as a result of the increasing intensity of adverse climatic conditions. The project will support the improvement of food security and marketing to increase resilience to climate change and provide capacity building on climate change risk management in particular related to drought, and systems for monitoring and evaluation. The total project cost is 11.0 UA (15.51 million dollars) over 5 years (2018-2022) and will be implemented in the four drought prone districts of Magude, Matutuine, Chigubo and Chibuto with estimated total direct beneficiaries of 20,000 and additional 20,000 indirect beneficiaries. It consists of the three following components: I) Agriculture Water Infrastructure Development; (ii) improved Food Security and Marketing to Increase Resilience to Climate Change; and (iii) Project Management.

Objectives

The DRARP goal is to strengthen the capacity of the rural communities to address the inter-linked challenges of climate change, rural poverty, food insecurity and land degradation through the provision of water harvesting infrastructure, and improving food production and marketing activities as well as capacity building for the affected communities.

Target Groups

The selected communities are among those mostly affected by the drought and they will be the direct beneficiaries of the activities under the project. Public institutions such as the Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources, National Agricultural Research Institute and relevant Directorates in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the provincial and district directorates of Agriculture and Public Works will benefit from the project interventions in terms of capacity building. Other indirect beneficiaries are health centers, public schools and district offices (benefiting from the rain water harvesting structures), processors, traders, entrepreneurs, various service providers, NGOs, etc. In addition to infrastructure and improved agricultural practices, innovative techniques needed for quality maintenance of infrastructure, nutrition modules, conservation and processing of food products will be developed. Many people will also benefit from the project through radio jingles that will disseminate some of the project’s nutrition and weather information, and training programs. Estimates plan for approximately 20.000 indirect beneficiaries.