In Mozambique, adoption of improved maize seed and chemical fertilizers is still limited. This study assessed farmers' attitudes towards hybrid maize SC513, Nitrogenous (N) Phosphorous (P) Potassium (K), (NPK 12-24-12) and urea fertilizers in highlands and lowlands of the Manica District. The study determined the influence of farmers' characteristics, attitudes, sources of information, and agro-ecological conditions on adoption of these technologies during 1995 through 2005. A questionnaire was administered during April and May 2006 with a randomly selected sample of 293 households. In general, farmers held positive attitudes towards improved maize varieties and chemical fertilizers, but the strength of attitudes towards fertilizers, in particular, varied by source of information. Farmers who learned about fertilizers from extension had stronger positive attitudes than farmers who learned about fertilizers from neighbors, although with hybrid seeds adoption there was no significant difference between key sources. Overall, the number of farmers using SC513 was higher than the number of farmers using NPK and urea. Farmers' decision to adopt SC513 was positively associated with agroecological conditions, knowledge, production traits and marketability of the maize. Agroecological conditions, knowledge of fertilizer application, and extension contact influenced adoption of chemical fertilizers. The results differentiate a simpler process of adoption of new seed from a more complex process of adoption of fertilizers which demands greater knowledge of timing and soils as well as basic computational skills. Factors determining adoption of hybrid maize varieties and chemical fertilizers should be considered when designing extension programs for these technologies.

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This paper compares the supply and demand of agricultural technologies related to maize crop in Sussundenga district, Mozambique. The field work was carried out in February and March 2018 and comprises of a survey of 140 households' maize growers, interviews with 15 agricultural technicians and six focus group meetings (four with maize growers and two with agricultural technicians). Data analysis was done using Bardin's content analysis and descriptive statistics. The results reveal that agricultural research and rural extension focus more on supplying technologies related to maize production. But farmers have holistic expectations that go beyond production technologies to include the entire marketing chain. It makes the technical support provided with little use to maize growers. Besides it, there are also farmers' unanswered demands and the supply of non-demanded technologies. It means that there is a mismatch between supply and demand of maize farming technologies. Agricultural research and rural extension organizations are suggested to supply not only agricultural technologies that maximize crop yield, but also services that help households improve their ability to store agricultural products and to sell it when prices are high. These actions have the potential to improve agricultural market performance and make the agricultural technologies more useful to maize growers.

This study analyses the factors affecting farmers’ participation in agricultural research and rural extension programs in Sussundenga district-Mozambique. We applied a questionnaire to 140 maize producers and to 18 technicians (extension agents and agricultural researchers). Fieldwork was carried out in February and March, 2018. Logit binary regression, descriptive statistics and content analysis were used to analyze the data. The results appoint that farmers' participation is considered weak, discontinuous and low. Farmers' participation is affected by the practice of off-farm activities, membership of farmers’ associations, number of technological demands and the maize production purpose. Nevertheless, the institutional context interferes with farmers' willingness to participate in research and extension programs. This article brings significant contributions to the literature that discusses farmers' participation in rural development programs. In addition to farmers' characteristics, the institutions context affects farmers' participation in the activities developed by these organizations. The promotion of farmers' participation should be thought taking into consideration that farmers are involved in several activities. Furthermore, the organizations need to offer technologies and services that help farmers finding solutions to the problems that they face.

This study mapped the agricultural researches on maize crop in Mozambique. A bibliographic research in the internet was carried out. Thus, we selected 72 studies related to maize crop in Mozambique. Descriptive statistics was used to group the studies according to year of publication and region that they cover. The main themes of the studies were grouped based on Commodity System Approach (CSA). The results point out that the scientific production on maize has relatively increased since 2011. 29% of studies address maize crop in entire country while 26% include other countries, mainly those neighbors of Mozambique. At the provincial level, Manica with 14%, Maputo with 7% and Tete with 7% are the provinces with relative high percentage of studies. Therefore, there is not relationship between the percentage of studies and the agricultural potential of the provinces in the country. The main themes of scientific production on maize are agronomic techniques for maize production (50%) and maize market issues (22%). Although post-harvest losses of maize are significant in Mozambique, only 2.8% of the studies analyzed this theme. Recently, some research on maize crop address transversal issues as environment, gender and nutrition. But the percentage of studies analyzing these themes is still low. Future studies are suggested to address themes linking transversal issues and maize crop. Maize storage and its market are other themes that deserve to be studied in the future.