Graca Machel says homeland, Mozambique, must tackle food production as well as prices

Machel: Mozambique must tackle broad food crisis

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The widow of independent Mozambique’s first president says the debate over food in her impoverished homeland does not end with the government’s reversal on bread prices.

Graca Machel, an international advocate for children and the poor, said in an Associated Press interview Friday that she and other activists will press the government to improve food production.

Machel says: “We are forcing the dialogue to happen.”

Protests last week in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, over hikes in the costs of bread, water and electricity turned violent, with at least 13 killed. On Tuesday, the government reversed the bread and water increases.