Synopsis: Public expenditures in agriculture in Mozambique: What investments are required for technical change, and what drives investment decisions?

This policy note is a synthesis of a paper1 that attempts to answer two important policy questions that pertain to Mozambique’s commitment to spur agricultural growth as per the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) agenda. The first question asks what magnitude and type of public agricultural investments would be required for the country to meet its development goals sustainably as laid out in the core agricultural strategy. In relation to this, results of the investment analysis indicate the following: (1) total public agricultural expenditure would have to grow by between 17 and 21 percent per year; (2) the share of public agricultural expenditure allocated to investments that can bring about technical change (for example, research and development) should be beefed up to between 28 and 46 percent, investments leading to provision of services and support to farmers that contribute to factor expansion and greater input use (for example, farm subsidies) should take up between 21 and 31 percent of public agricultural expenditure, and investments that raise the efficiency of input use (for example, irrigation and information on best cropping practices) should take up 6 to 8 percent; and (3) the amount spent on general expenditures (for example, salaries, institutional support) should decline from the current 75 percent to between 24 and 36 percent of public agricultural expenditure.Non-PRIFPRI1; CRP2; MozSSP; F Strengthening institutions and governance; D Transforming AgricultureDSGD; PIMCGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM