Determinants of household income and schooling investments in rice-growing provinces in Mozambique, 2002–5

Most Mozambicans live in rural areas and earn their living by cultivating small fields using traditional technologies. Indeed, about 89 percent of the population is involved in agriculture, including a significant segment of the urban population (Government of Mozambique 2001). During the 2004-5 agricultural season, only 6 percent of farmers purchased improved seeds of food crops, 4 percent used chemical fertilizers, and 1 percent had access to canal or pump irrigation systems (Ministry of Agriculture 2005). Thus, the average yield between 2002 and 2006 was merely 1.0 ton per hectare for maize and 0.9 ton per hectare for rice (FAO 2007). Because Mozambican households depend highly on traditional agriculture, the country’s gross domestic product per capita per year is only US$345, and more than half of its population is classified as poor (Government of Mozambique 2001).1 The major challenge is therefore to raise household income so as to reduce poverty, which is the foremost goal of the Mozambican government.