Maize, cassava, sorghum, peanuts, bananas, rice, tea, sisal and coconuts are also important crops. Various reports attribute the introduction of rice in southern Africa to Arab, Portuguese, or Asian traders and emigrants. In Mozambique, rice is thought to have been grown for more than 500 years. Although family-run smallholdings dominated through the 1930s and 1940s, the colonial administration increasingly tried to develop a viable commercial sector. Today, rice is again mostly grown by smallholders, each with less than 0.5 ha.
Women provide most of the production and postharvest labor.
Although rice is grown mostly for consumption, occasional surpluses are sold in local markets. The area planted to rice has increased over the past few years as many families displaced during the civil war returned to their land. There are three major rice ecosystems in Mozambique. Rice varieties are mainly traditional. Rice varieties are similar to those in the rainfed lowlands, but are more drought-tolerant.