REPORT WITH THE RESULTS FROM THE BBN WORKSHOPS IN MARRUPA DISTRICT

Marrupa District – Mozambique August/2015

Pedro Zorrilla-Miras
01/12/2015

ACES PROJECT: LIVELIHOODS AND LAND USE CHANGE IN MOZAMBIQUE
WP 1 AND WP5

© University of Edinburgh

The method used followed always the “VillageWorkshops_Protocol_20150421” document. 
We did the workshops between the 29 of July and the 1st of August of 2015. Each workshop took between 90 and 120 minutes. There were 8-9 participants in each, with between 2 and 4 women in each of them. We did the workshops in three villages of the Marrupa District.

Nakapa – Pilot workshop (29/07/2015)

Chitambo (30/07/2015)

Notes taken during the workshop: 
They do not have cattle because of tse-tse fly. 
They need to improve the ways of conserving the food after cropping. 
During the rainy season they use pastures to feed the livestock (goats); in the dry season they use leaves of the trees (browse). They do not do any pastures management action. 
They produce tobacco, livestock and food from the farm, the last one being by far the most important activity for them. 
Extension services for agriculture and forestry are necessary. 
They need help for accessing credits, for example to buy a tractor. They think access to credits to buy tractors is more needed than extension services. Also credits could be used to pay persons that would work in the farms. They also need trucks to carry crops to the markets; they could use credits also to buy trucks. 
District government provides some credits, but they usually arrive to people that already has money, and it is difficult that it reaches the poor families. The government should finance projects that create employment. The government should provide schools and drinking water.

Changaussa (31/07/2015)

Notes taken during the workshop: 
They have water pump and school. They do not shell firewood, they use it only to cook. I guess this is because they live long away from Marrupa city, so it takes too long to carry it. 
They use the same land to crop during 5/7 years and then the change to a different land. 
They do not have electricity and they need it. Some of them have solar panels, for charging mobile phones and radios. 
They use some medical plants to improve the farms. They mix them with the seeds, so that they grow stronger. 
They use money to buy: soap, oil, salt, working tools, food… They do not need to buy things for the school. They need money to go to hospital.

Mirorane (01/08/2015)

Notes taken during the workshop: 
They do not have pumps, they use water from rivers. 
The most important natural hazards are rainfall irregularities: some years it rains very low and other years it rains too much. Therefore, I assume they do not have any special natural hazards (droughts and floods). 
They think to create an association in the village would be useful to open new horticultural gardens and buy a pump; for charcoal production, but there is not very easy to transport and sell a lot of charcoal. But the understanding between all the villagers is difficult and for example in tobacco production each of them works individually. 
The prices from tobacco are very low. 
They also think they need more credits than extension services. 
They also use pastures in the rainy season and browse in the dry season. 
I asked them for any special agricultural practice: they dig furrows (grooves) in the farm. 
Intervention from the government would be to improve the road.
The government always promise (pledge) that they will finance projects in the community (school, hospital, drinking water), but finally they do not do it.  
They think they still have enough land to open new farms.