The Mozambican government through its Agricultural Development Fund (FDA) is promoting a program of a new variety of mango of high commercial value.

The program is to involve among small and medium farmers in the southern provinces of Maputo and Inhambane.

According to the Mozambican Television on Tuesday, the project is budgeted at 172,000 U.S. dollars in local currency the Matical.

Farmers in the seven districts of Maputo province are to get 30, 000 seedlings of the Tommy Atkins, a variety of mango, known in Southern Africa.

This year, according to the TVM, the project has also covered Inhambane, and in the future it will expand to other parts of the country.

The ministry of agriculture said that the FDA is distributing seedlings to farmers at prices that are 40 percent subsidized. Dania Falcao, head of the Forests Department of the FDA, was quoted as saying that in Boane district, about 30 kilometers west of the Mozambican capital.

The seedlings are imported from neighboring South Africa. This mango variety can produce 20 tons per hectare, but, in this initial phase, the FDA technical staff prefer a more modest target of 10 tons per hectare.

In order to guarantee success and the best implementation of this program and others that may arise, the ministry is promoting the technical skills of the extensionists in producing seedlings and managing the orchards, thus creating a reliable means of transmitting knowledge and technology to the farmers.