For three decades, the centrality of agriculture to Mozambican development has been recognised. Agriculture still supports 80% of the Mozambican population (World Bank 2005a: xiii).There was growth in production after the end of the war, but it came largely through displaced people returning home and re-opening land that had not been used for many years. The World Bank (2006a) warns that such growth is not sustainable because there has been no modernisation; more than 30 years after independence, most peasants farm in the same way as their grandparents.

Of Mozambican farm families, 99.6% have small holdings averaging only 1.2 ha, because with only a hoe they cannot work more land. Of the rest, 0.33% are medium-sized farmers with 6.6 ha and a tiny 0.07% are large farmers with an average 282 ha (Mole 2006).