The climate and food crisis: Integrating environmental and social objectives into rural and agricultural development in Mozambique - The FARSYMABI Approach

The climate and food crisis: Integrating environmental and social objectives into rural and agricultural development in Mozambique - The FARSYMABI Approach

Máriam Abbas, PhD

Máriam Abbas is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Natural Resources Technology and Management (ITT), TH Köln, in Germany. Máriam has a PhD in Development Studies from the School of Agriculture (ISA), University of Lisbon. She is a member of Observatório do Meio Rural (OMR) – a research institution focused on rural and agrarian development in Mozambique. Her main areas of interest include food security, farming systems, climate change, biodiversity, rural development, and agricultural and climate policies.

In developing countries like Mozambique, agriculture is key to tackling major sustainability and societal challenges, of which poverty reduction, food insecurity, and the biodiversity and climate crisis. Nevertheless, public policies aimed at addressing these issues are often inadequate. The disconnection between national strategies and the local context, is pointed out as one of the main limitations of the current policy framework. Additionally, social and environmental objectives are often in conflict, with one being prioritised over the other. Therefore, a farming system approach and socio-ecological renationalisation is of utmost relevance to promote biodiversity conservation and local development, especially in the context of climate change. These approaches allow the identification of areas and/or regions with similar characteristics, regarding poverty, food (in)security and the relationship with biodiversity, which will allow the design of appropriate policies adjusted to each context/region.