News stories by Charles Mangwiro

CHOKWE, Mozambique, Sep 15 (IPS) - High fuel prices and transportation costs isolated Mozambique's farmers from one of their biggest markets while the country's growing debt and economic crisis strained the budgets of many. But restrictions imposed by President Filipe Nyusi's government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened food security as farmers have been unable to get their produce to market. This is the first in a two-part series. Like many Mozambicans in the agricultural sector, 39-year-old Fatima Matavele, a commercial farmer in the district of Chokwe, some 213 kilometres north of the capital, Maputo, has had a tough year. Although the last few years have been hard, 2020 has proven to be the most difficult of all.