Rosemarie Obana, Agricultural small business adviser, Mozambique
Filipino volunteer Rosemarie Obana found the experience of volunteering in Mozambique so rewarding she stayed for four years. Her work during that time has had a real impact on the production outputs of a number of community farmers.
Background
In Mozambique 80% of the population depends on agriculture, with 70% living in rural areas. It is one of the poorest countries in the world. Whilst the country has enjoyed a relatively rapid growth in prosperity over the last ten years, almost two-thirds of households are still food insecure.
Because of this, one of VSO’s priorities in the country is working with small farmers in rural areas. The focus is a dual one: the technical matter of increasing the productivity of the crops that are grown – such as tomatoes, beans and sweet potato – by using better tools, seeds and irrigation techniques whilst at the same time working with smallholders and farmers’ associations to increase their business skills, membership of unions and access to microcredit schemes and markets.
Supporting agriculture businesses
VSO Mozambique has had volunteers working in Secure Livelihoods since 1997 in a series of placements. Rosemarie Obana is one such VSO volunteer from the Philippines working as an agricultural small business adviser in the country.
With a background in working with agricultural cooperatives in the Philippines, a BA in Agriculture and an MA in Business Administration, she is well placed to work in Mozambique. She says: “Coming from a country like the Philippines, it’s easier to identify with farmers; the basic needs are the same.” Her placement is with the Association of Agriculture and Livestock Technicians (ATAP), working closely with local communities to pass on relevant skills near the capital, Maputo.
Improving techniques
“As part of my job with ATAP, I usually go out to the field to check the plants that the communities are growing, to see if we can improve the way they plant the crop and then to help them with other agricultural things to make the production better.”
Such is her commitment to the project that Rosemarie extended her placement long beyond the initial two years. Rosemarie says, “The Cooperative Farmers’ Union in Marracuene has grown from originally having 15 members to 33 associations.”
Increasing production
Rosemarie’s work means that small farmers now have opportunities to increase their food production, and their income. The poor nutrition associated with a lack of adequate and varied food is one of the obvious causes of the country’s ill health and low life expectancy. Though Mozambique’s child mortality rates have decreased significantly since 1997, they are still one of the highest in the world: one in every five children does not live to see its fifth birthday.