This proposal is extracted from the six-country proposal for Southern Africa Maize Intensification. While based on the six-country concept of maize intensfication in Southern Africa, this proposal focuses only on Mozambique and is budgeted initially for a year. This pilot project will increase intensification of maize production and linkages between maize producers and agricultural input and output markets. Site Specific Nutrient Management and Integrated Soil Fertility Management are key technical aspects of the project.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has declared that the vision of economic development in Africa must be based on raising and sustaining higher rates of economic growth, and the African Heads of State and Government adopted the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP), which calls for a 6% annual growth in agricultural production, as a framework for the restoration of agricultural growth, food security and rural development in Africa. Fertilizer use in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is, on average, 8 kg/ha, or only about 10% of the world average, and fertilizer use in Mozambique is, on average, 6 kg/ha.

Adequate nutrition is necessary to maintain human health and to enable humans to resist diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and cholera, among others. Both healthy and ill people require micronutrients, macronutrients and a healthy calorie-protein diet that cannot be met by pills alone. A rapidly deployable approach to increase the micronutrient content of foods is agronomic fortification. By adding essential nutrients of both plants and humans (such as zinc and boron) and essential nutrients of humans (such as selenium) by fertilization, crop yields can be increased and human nutrition can be improved.