Agriculture plays a key role in the economy of Mozambique. It accounts for 31.8% of the GDP and provides a livelihood to almost 81% of the labor force. The majority of production is undertaken by smallholder families under rainfed schemes, thus increasing the sector’s sensitive to climatic conditions. This agricultural sector risk assessment report provides a robust analysis of production, market, and enabling environment risks facing farmers and other stakeholders across Mozambique’s agriculture sector. It aims to assist stakeholders in incorporating agricultural risk perspective into decision making and to build their capacity risk assessment and management.
The analysis shows that the periods of intense civil war (1985–86 and 1990–92), drought (1994), and flood (2000) resulted in negative growth rates in the agricultural sector. Since 2000, the growth rate has not dipped into negative territory, but the occurrence of agricultural risk has had an adverse impact on agricultural growth. The frequent occurrence of agricultural risks creates food affordability and availability problems for vulnerable rural populations and urban consumers and results in sudden spikes in the food insecure population.