Speakers - 2025

Abstract

In Mozambique, the concept of syntropic agriculture is something recent, however, in practice it has been widely applied, especially by  small  producers,  in  family farming. Producers with an average area of 1.5 ha, although not in  an  organized system, they usually plant fruit trees, including coconut trees, mango  trees,  citrus fruits, pineapples, as well as food crops such as  corn,  cassava,  sweet  potatoes, peanuts, vegetables and others, in rotation, succession or  intercropping.  Family farming aims to provide food and income for impoverished  families,  despite  public and private investment efforts, it is still  characterized  as  subsistence  farming, covering about 80% of the rural population. Biofuels are a  recent  topic  in Mozambique, only in 2023 a basic regulatory framework were set with two main regulatory measures for production and blending of biofuels in  fossil  fuels (Measure 10 of the Economic Acceleration Plan – PAE and Decree 61 of November 15th, 2023). Considering that the main raw materials for the production of biofuels come from agriculture, questions related to food security by replacing food crops to cash crops for biofuels production may arise. To solve these questions, field research, as well as bibliographic research and information on crops  with  commercial  potential  for biofuel production in Mozambique was compiled.Different frameworks were proposed according to 2 production models, namely outgrowing and nucleus farm. In  both models family  farmers and their specificities, such as cultural, and feeding habits as well as crop knowledge were considered. For these producers, some production systems that integrate biofuel crops with 2 or more food crops in a syntropic system with intercropping and rotation of food crops were tested. Some annuals crop was selected in the case of cassava and short cycle crops, like lettuce, cabbage, sweet potatoes, and others according to the edaphoclimatic conditions  and  technological level of the producer. Thus, it was found that the strategy of intercropping tall and larger spacing perennial crops, for biofuels production with food crops (citrus fruits), peanuts, cowpeas, sweet  potatoes  and/or cassava, provides  raw material  to supply the biofuel chain, without harming the availability of food throughout the year.Therefore, crops for biofuel production generate revenue for family farmers, without compromising food production, maximizing  the  use  of  resources  such  as land and family labor. These systems result not only in improving the farmers income but also increases food diversity and availability of food  over  the  years,  and potentially promote the use of marginal areas for income generation and food production, while contributing to the change of landscape and ecosystems in regions with degraded soils.