Mozambique is holding elections on Wednesday, with the ruling Frelimo party, in power since independence in 1975, facing a testing time at the polls from the opposition Renamo party. Frelimo has had to defend itself against accusations of landgrabs after the government leased land near Xai-Xai, in Gaza province, to China’s Wanbao Oil and Grain to grow rice. NGOs claim 38,000 families reliant on subsistence farming have been forced off their land; the government says the project is creating jobs and money to invest in schools

 
  • Election posters in Xai-Xai

    Election posters for the ruling party, Frelimo, in Xai-Xai, Gaza province, ahead of the general election on 15 October

  • Young children herd goats

    Children herd goats in Chicumbane, a village south of Xai-Xai. Despite Mozambique’s economic growth in recent years, poverty remains widespread. More than 70% of poor households live in rural areas, where farming is the main source of income

  • Shacks in the middle of the rice field

    Farmers in Chicumbane claim their crops were destroyed when the fertile farmland on the bank of the Limpopo river was converted into a massive rice plantation by Chinese company Wanbao Oil and Grain. Madalena Matusse, who lives in a shack in the middle of the rice field, says she is frequently hassled and asked to leave

  • Madalena Matusse sits outside her shack

    Matusse, 48, refused to move when Wanbao began cultivating the 900-hectare (2,224 acre) plot four years ago. Valente Machava, a local Frelimo politician, says: ‘This is not land occupation, but a business agreement between our government and the Chinese investor. The rice project creates jobs and investment in schools’

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  • Madalena Matusse prepares dinner outside her shack

    Matusse prepares dinner outside her shack. The family survives on growing a few crops on the border of the rice field

  • Cristina Arone and her family

    Cristina Arone, 38, says her crops were destroyed when the land was leased to Wanbao. Yet Wanbao has denied accusations of landgrabbing, telling the Ecologist: ‘Those people that brand our project as landgrabbing haven’t quite understood the positive impact this company is bringing to Mozambique’

  • Angelina Tovele grinds cassava into flour

    Angelina Tovele, a widow who lives with her late husband’s second wife, grinds cassava into flour. The vegetable is their only source of food, she says. The area the villagers were offered when their land was leased lies 7km from Chicumbane. ‘It’s too dry to grow maize and tomatoes. We have never been short of food before, but now we have hunger’

  • Aurélio Alfredo Bila sits outside in Chicumbane

    Aurélio Alfredo Bila (blue shirt), 28, was offered a job when Wanbao started cultivating rice. Frelimo says foreign investment is necessary to modernise agriculture and boost economic growth. However, workers in Chicumbane say jobs are scarce and poorly paid

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  • The town’s secondary school, Escola Secundária de Chicumbane

    Foreign investments in agriculture, such as the rice cultivation near Xai-Xai, bring much-needed improvements in Mozambique’s schools, says Machava. The town’s secondary school, Escola Secundária de Chicumbane, is overcrowded and urgently needs more classrooms

  • A woman carries firewood across the rice plantation near Xai-Xai

    A woman carries firewood across the rice plantation near Xai-Xai

  • Helia Mulhanga plaits her daughter's hair outside the family home

    Chicumbane farmer Helia Mulhanga, 44, plaits her daughter’s hair outside the family home. ‘I used to grow lettuce in the field and sell vegetables on the market. Now I only have a small garden,’ she says