Agricultura familiar e a produção e comercialização de milho em Vanduzi, 1987-2000

Abstract

The production and trade of maize by the peasantry of Vanduzi was the basic economic activity before the installation of colonial rule. With the economic reforms of the 1960s to 1975, Vanduzi came to be integrated into the development and settlement plans of Revué as an agrarian block and into the colonato system, through the free settlement of white and black settlers, with semi-mechanised agricultural production assisted by the Guilds and benefiting from the infrastructure built at the time: roads, railways and the Revué hydroelectric dam. For the peasants of Vanduzi these reforms meant: the loss of fertile land for agricultural production, integration into the colonial economy with low salaries in the settlers' farms and as a reserve of labour for Southern Rhodesia, the practice of subsistence agriculture guided by the colonial government (production of maize and cotton) in the face of the sugar (Marromeu, Mafambisse and Buzi) and textile (Textáfrica) industries. Within this colonial economic framework, the peasantry maintained its strategy of migration and of cross-border commerce with the Rhodesian markets, and the production and commercialization of maize and other crops in the capitalist markets of the time, competing with the colonial bourgeoisie, until independence in 1975. From 1975 to 1987, this economic structure in Vanduzi ceased to exist, with the flight of the farmers and the disappearance of the Guilds and the Indian canteen workers, and with the implementation of the PPL, a mechanised state agrarian economy was structured, putting cooperatives and the peasantry in second place, with regard to access to agricultural credit, etc. Inexperience and mismanagement in state-owned companies and cooperatives and the lack of factors of production, in addition to the war between the government and RENAMO, led to the failure of this system. On the other hand, for the local peasants and the displaced/refugees of war, the bankruptcy of the EEAV in 1989 had another meaning: access to military protection, to effective or seasonal labour, to food products and agricultural inputs (seeds) for maize cultivation. From 1987 to 2000, family production and commercialisation of cm Vanduzi maize had new incentives: informal trade and the GTZ-MAP/MARRP project, which provided inputs, roads, water holes, health posts and schools. With the end of the war, the project was extended to all localities in Vanduzi. The number of traders from Tete, Chimoio, Beira, Inhambane, Xai-Xai and Maputo increased. The cost of basic necessities also increased, as did the reduction in the price of maize, and the power of the peasantry to market their agricultural surplus in favour of buyers. This economic structure made the peasantry of Vanduzi, in addition to maintaining the agricultural production and marketing of maize, resort to the practice of informal trade of industrial products purchased in Zimbabwe, in Manica, Machipanda and Chimoio as self-employment among young people and adults, activities that ensure the development of family farming in Vanduzi. (TRADUÇAO NOSSA)