Maize is the staple food and principal cash crop in Mozambique. Production is dominated by small-holders who sell their surpluses to generate income. Southern Mozambique is a maize deficit region while the North is in surplus, therefore trade between these two areas has implications for food security in the country and is expected to accelerate economic development. This study attempts to measure the extent of market integration between major maize markets in Mozambique. }The study is organised into six chapters. Chapter One presents findings of the investigation into the dynamics and operation of informal maize markets in Mozambique. Chapter Two presents a brief overview of the methods used in the analysis of market integration and gives a review of international studies and studies specific to Mozambique on market integration. Chapter Three reviews agricultural policies in Mozambique and provides an overview of the maize markets in Mozambique. The methodology applied in the study in discussed in Chapter Four while Chapter Five presents a discussion of results from the econometric analysis. In conclusion, Chapter six provides a summary of the results of the market survey and on the basis of the econometric analysis forwards recommendations.

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This study responds to some of Mozambique's basic development challenges and provides qualitative and quantitative insights for policymaking from an economywide perspective. The report highlights the importance of agricultural development showing agriculture's large sectoral multiplier effects and that applying scarce capital to agriculture is generally more effective than applying it to industry and services. A novel CGE model is developed and used in a series of analyses focused on the impact and design of economic policy. Issues addressed are aid dependency, biases in price incentives facing the agriculture sector, improvement in agricultural technology and marketing margins, risk-reducing behavior and gender roles in agricultural production, and food aid distribution. The study also provides a future perspective and analyzes the Mozambican economy using dynamic macroeconomic modeling techniques, demonstrating that sophisticated analytical tools can be of significant value, even in "data-poor" situations.

Dramatic increases in food prices, as witnessed on a global scale in recent years, threaten the food security of hundreds of millions of the rural poor in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. This book focuses on recent food and financial crises as they have affected Africa, illustrating the problems using country case studies, that cover their origins, effects on agriculture and rural poverty, their underlying factors and making recommendations as to how such crises could best be addressed in the future.

With contributions from both Mozambican and non-Mozambican scholars of multi-disciplinary backgrounds and approaches, this book provides a range of new perspectives on how Mozambique has been characterized by profound changes in its rural communities and places. Despite the persistence of poverty in Mozambique, significant investments have been made in rural areas in extractive industry or agribusiness, resulting in both the transformation of these areas, and a new set of tensions and conflicts related to land tenure and population resettlement. Meanwhile, the Mozambican rural landscape is one dominated by smallholders whose livelihoods depend on both farming and non-farming activities, and who are often extremely vulnerable to shocks and pressure over resources. The emergence of new civil society organizations has led to clashes with in the interests of local political, administrative and economic powers, creating fresh social conflicts. Transformations of the Rural Spaces in Mozambique examines the process of transformation across a range of settings; from the impacts of large-scale industries and the transformation of agriculture, to relations between state and non-state actors and issues related to land.