Hanoi will continue assisting Mozambique in advancing the productivity of rice cultivation following encouraging results from a trilateral project in the 2012-2013 period.

The Hanoi Centre for Seeds and Plants held a meeting on August 7 to review the implementation of the project which aims to assist Mozambique in accessing wet rice cultivation techniques in order to ensure its food security and create jobs for farmers.

Under the project, which was inked among Japan, Mozambique and Hanoi in 2010, Vietnamese experts were sent to the African country to train its workforce and build a model for wet rice cultivation.

After two years of testing, most of rice varieties have proved high productivity. Mozambican rice varieties generated 4.2 – 6.2 tonnes/ha while the Vietnamese ones produced 6.9 – 8.2 tonnes/ha.

Nine more rice varieties are expected to be tested in 2014, expanding the cultivation area to 100 ha.-VNA