O projecto de desenvolvimento agrário de Inhassune/ Ramalhusca: contexto e impacto sócio-económico, 1980-1999

Abstract

The Inhassune/Ramalhusca Agrarian Development project” was a rural development intervention, whose origins fit into the agrarian policy and strategies outlined at the 3rd FRELIMO Congress in 1977, which defended the direct intervention of the State in production. With this work, we tried to find out what was the socio-economic impact of the Inhassune/Ramalhusca Project on the local populations involved and to what extent the project was an instrument to solve some of the fundamental problems faced by local producers. Indeed, through written sources and, above all, through interviews, it was found that the forms of state production installed in the region in the period 1980 to 1989/90, despite some outstanding achievements, did not solve the main problems faced by producers in Inhassune . These problems were essentially linked to the closure of agricultural marketing mechanisms, supply of agricultural inputs, agrarian technical assistance and the facilities for mechanized farming of the land (in a system of amortizable credit at the end of the agricultural season), as a result of the abandonment of Portuguese settlers from the Mozambique Cotton Institute, as well as private traders in the period following independence. On the other hand, collective production and the seasonal nature of their work clashed with individual work, resulting in a shortage of labor in the former, which in turn contributed to low production. In light of this, the Project's implementation strategy was restructured from 1989/90 onwards, in order to adapt to the socio-economic transformations that had been taking place in the country since 1987 with the beginning of the Economic Restructuring Program. Since then, the Project has abolished the state farms system and their lands have been worked by peasants in the region with the technical and material support (production factors) of the project. Thus, the organized family sector was formed, whose marketing, particularly cotton, was guaranteed by the project itself. The project complemented its activities with the provision of improved services in health, education and clean water supply. In this way, this project contributed positively to socio-economic well-being and even became an instrument to solve some of the fundamental problems faced by local producers and the Inhassune community in general( TRADUÇÃO NOSSA)