“There’s definitely a change in climate. When I was growing up, we could plant maize to have it bloom between October and December.

“But over the last ten years, the rain has come in January and February. By then, all the seed planted before October has dried up and we harvest literally nothing,” says the 42-year-old who lives in a village 40kms from the capital Maputo.
 
Ana owns three plots of land in Samora Macel village – the most fertile sits untouched because floods have swept away her house and made it too dangerous to farm.

“It’s an ongoing problem, not only for me but for all the other farmers with lowland. It’s wasted land because we cannot live there permanently, yet we cannot afford to come and go everyday either.”

Ana lives with her 20-year-old son and relies wholly on her crops for income. She’s not finding things easy.

“We used to be able to harvest more than enough crops to last the family a year. But today I’m forced to buy maize and rice at very high prices, because I don’t have enough land to produce the staples.

“I receive seeds from the local farmer’s association and also use the association’s oxen, to plough the land. My biggest earner is lettuce, which I grow in the dry and cool season of April, May and June, as that is the period when it fetches the highest price.

“But in the wet season, the vegetable suffers from pests and disease and is more likely to wither. I spend so much money on pesticides, and in the end hardly make any money.

“My prices are set by the farmer’s association, and as a coop member I have the power of negotiation with the middle men.

“With the climate as it stands with floods following droughts, farming has become very unpredictable.

“I would love to have access to some extra funds so that I can make the most of my land. But I’m afraid to approach a bank to ask for money because I could very well lose all my produce in a drought or a flood. It’s become the norm, and I don’t want to have bigger problems than I have already.” 

G8 leaders need to stop subsidising their farmers and increase fair trade. When western farmers are subsidized, it boosts their profits in international markets.

Developing countries import the produce at high prices yet cannot collect any taxes on it, so their countries are flooded with foreign produce that is of higher quality than local produce but sells at the same price.