Irrigation Helps Women Farmers in Mozambique Weather Climate Extremes

Abstract

In January 2021, a devastating cyclone hit Mozambique and flooded Berta Inácio Ngove’s field, burying a promising crop of maize and beans in a watery tomb.

“It was bad,” recalls Ngove, a 52-year-old widow and mother of four children. “We did not harvest anything.”

But cyclones aren’t the only extreme weather events that smallholder farmers like Ngove must endure. Droughts and erratic rainfall have also elevated crop losses and food scarcity in a country increasingly vulnerable to the vagaries of the climate crisis...