The Nature of Mozambican Agricultural Land
Secure rights, healthy soil, living water: a practical guide for communities, field workers and farmers.
Read free chaptersPDF, 22 pages with 7 drawings: the three roads to a DUAT, community delimitation in eight steps, the dispute ladder, the jar test, the catchment and the A-frame. Pay with PayPal or card; the download link appears right away.
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The short answer
In Mozambique all land belongs to the State. What families hold is the DUAT, the right to use the land and benefit from it, and a family that farms by custom or in good faith for ten years already has it, even without paper.
Paper and maps make that right visible to strangers, so the book starts there: secure land first (legal ground), then know the soil and water (physical ground), then regenerate the land with compost, trees and local plants (sustainable output).
Free chapters: who owns the land, and how to read your soil
Free chapters, as printed in the book. Share them freely.
Chapter 1. Who owns the land in Mozambique?
In Mozambique, all land belongs to the State and cannot be bought, sold or mortgaged. What families, communities and companies hold is the DUAT (Direito de Uso e Aproveitamento da Terra): the right to use the land and benefit from it. For a smallholder family, the DUAT is the most valuable thing it owns.
Three roads to a DUAT
- Occupation according to customary norms. Families and local communities that use land according to local custom hold a DUAT, as long as the custom does not contradict the Constitution.
- Occupation in good faith. A Mozambican who has used land openly, without objection, for at least ten years holds a DUAT.
- Authorization of a request. Anyone, including investors, can apply to the State. The State must consult the local community first. For economic projects the right lasts up to 50 years and can be renewed.
A family that occupies land by custom or in good faith already has a legal right, even without any paper. If the right is questioned, it can be proved by the testimony of neighbours, by the community’s own records, or by a certificate.
Why get a certificate then?
- It protects the family when an investor or official claims the land is empty.
- It helps widows and daughters keep the land when a husband or father dies.
- It reduces boundary fights with neighbours.
- It may help the family obtain credit or support programmes.
Women and land
The Land Law gives women and men equal rights to hold and inherit DUATs. In practice, many women lose land through divorce, widowhood or family pressure. Registering land in the names of both spouses, and recording daughters’ inheritance, are among the most important protections a family can make.
A note on the law: the government approved a new National Land Policy in November 2022 and has been revising the Land Law since. Always check current rules with your district services (SDAE), the provincial cadastre services or a paralegal organization. This is a practical guide, not legal advice.
Chapter 6. Reading your soil with your hands
You do not need a laboratory to understand your soil. Your hands, a jar, a spade and your eyes tell you most of what matters for farming.
| Check | How | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Jar test (texture) | Fill a clear bottle one third with soil, add water and a pinch of salt; shake hard; leave still for a day; measure the layers | How much sand, silt and clay: how fast water drains and how much it holds |
| Ribbon test | Squeeze a wet handful between thumb and finger into a ribbon | No ribbon: sandy. Short ribbon that breaks: loam. Long shiny ribbon: clay |
| Spade test | Dig one spade deep; look at the block | Dark, crumbly soil with roots and earthworms is alive; hard, grey or smelly soil is in trouble |
| Worm count | Count earthworms in one spade of moist soil | 10 or more is a healthy sign; none means the soil needs organic matter |
| Water test | Push an open tin into the ground, fill with water, time how long it takes to soak in | Very slow: compacted or clay soil; very fast: sandy soil that dries quickly |
| Where | Typical soil | What works |
|---|---|---|
| Coastal plains and much of the south | Sandy, low in nutrients | Compost, mulch, cassava, groundnut, cashew, millet; basins to hold water |
| River valleys (Zambezi, Limpopo, Incomáti, Save, Púnguè) | Rich alluvial soils, flood risk | Rice, vegetables, maize, sugarcane; plan for floods |
| Central and northern uplands | Red and brown loams and clays | Maize, beans, soya, pigeon pea, potatoes; protect slopes from erosion |
The full book continues with the rest of the lessons, every drawing, and the checklists.
Every copy plants seed
$5 from every copy sold buys seed for a smallholder farmer in Mozambique, with receipts and field photos in our monthly letter. Buying this book is one way sponsors in the US can take part.
What is inside
- Introduction: secure land first
- Part 1, the legal ground. 1: Who owns the land in Mozambique? 2: Fit-for-purpose maps. 3: Mapping your community’s land in eight steps. 4: Mapping a family plot with a phone and a walk. 5: Investors, consultations and resolving disputes
- Part 2, the physical ground. 6: Reading your soil. 7: Water and the catchment. 8: Which land is fit for crops? 9: Stopping erosion with the A-frame. 10: Recovering land after cyclones, floods and drought
- Part 3, the sustainable output. 11: Regenerating tired soil. 12: Trees on the farm and farmer-managed natural regeneration. 13: A land plan for a family and a village
- Twelve land rules and sources
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Frequently asked questions
What is a DUAT in Mozambique?
The DUAT (Direito de Uso e Aproveitamento da Terra) is the right to use land and benefit from it. All land belongs to the State and cannot be sold; families, communities and companies hold DUATs instead.
Do I need a paper to have land rights in Mozambique?
No. Under the 1997 Land Law, families that occupy land by custom, or Mozambicans who have used it openly in good faith for ten years, already hold a DUAT. A certificate and map make the right visible and easier to defend.
What is community land delimitation?
A process where a whole community maps and records the area of its customary rights, with its neighbours, and registers it with the district and cadastre services. Investors must then negotiate with the community.
What is fit-for-purpose land administration?
An approach set out by FIG and the World Bank in 2014: record land quickly and cheaply using visible boundaries, satellite images and community participation, accurately enough for today, and improve the records later.
How can I test my soil without a lab?
Use the jar test for texture, the ribbon test, the spade test, a worm count and a simple water infiltration test with an open tin. Together they tell you most of what matters for farming.
About the author
Anselmo Boaventura founded Maputo Bridge Capital in Fort Worth, Texas, to connect sponsors with verified smallholder farmers in Mozambique. He is the author of The Nature of Poverty, The Nature of Wealth, The Nature of Belonging and The Nature of the Harvest.