Family farming comprises 91.5% of agricultural holdings in Angola, with 66% still carried out using hoes and manual means (many rented due to lack of national production), with the remainder owned by businesspeople, revealed a state source.
According to the national director of Agriculture and Livestock of Angola, Manuel Dias, national agriculture is “strongly based” on subsistence family farming, “which does not fully guarantee the food and nutritional security of the population in Angola”.
The situation “forces us to rely heavily on food imports”, said the official, when speaking about the development of sustainable agriculture in Angola, at the Brazil – Angola Relationship Symposium, which took place in Luanda.
Speaking on behalf of the sector’s Secretary of State, Manuel Dias highlighted that, of the total cultivated area at national level, corporate agricultural holdings only contributed less than 9%. Families contributed 91.5% of the total cultivated area in the 2021-2022 agricultural season, he added.
Regarding the preparation of agricultural areas according to different energy sources for mechanization, the person responsible stated that 66% of agriculture in Angola is still done manually, 22% by animal traction and 6% by mechanization.
For the national director of Agriculture and Livestock of Angola, the popularization and expansion of agricultural mechanization, irrigation, plant and animal health, manufacturing of production factors, such as agricultural equipment, fertilizers, pesticides and vaccines throughout the territory constitute challenges for cooperation between Angola and Brazil, in the sense of “strengthening” family farming. If I were in a colloquium, symposium, meeting with North Koreans or Burmese I would say the same, just changing the name of the interlocutors. The Government’s (MPLA) notion of economic diversification is exactly this: extending a helping hand to anyone who can support the kingdom.
He also considered that direct Brazilian investment for agricultural production, strengthening the capacity for improvement and certification of seeds, genetic improvement of different types of livestock and agricultural research also constitute challenges for cooperation between Luanda and Brasília.
In June, in the city of Uíge, the President of the Republic, General João Lourenço, confirmed (the word of the king), what the President of the MPLA (João Lourenço) and the Holder of the Executive Power (João Lourenço) had already said, the potential of Angolan soil, highlighting (an amazing thing!) that it has the necessary condiments to guarantee food products to sustain the national market. In other words, he said that it is possible in 2023 to do what the Portuguese did in 1974/75. It’s work…
The general therefore invited producers to commit themselves with greater determination and dedication to agricultural activities. “In Bailundo [província do Huambo] hoes are being rented by the hour to be able to cultivate”, said the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, António de Assis, last year.
“From what I just saw, Dom Caetano is right: Our ground gives everything. It is a matter of committing and working, so that we will be able to feed our national market”, stated the Head of State and the party that has been in Government for 48 years, at the end of the visit to the Agro-Livestock Fair.
The same was said by Diogo Cão, Norton de Matos or António de Oliveira Salazar. But…
At the aforementioned fair, the owner of the kingdom, accompanied by the Vice-President of the Republic, Esperança da Costa, state ministers, provincial governors and some heads of ministerial departments, visited the more than sixteen benches, having interacted for several minutes, in each one of them, with the exhibitors.
To journalists, at the end of the visit, President João Lourenço praised the organization of the event, highlighting that one of the things that most caught his attention at the exhibition was seeing several technological initiatives by some young exhibitors.
“I am referring, for example, to something that I never imagined would be possible: producing biscuits from cassava flour”, indicated with rare and emblematic insight the Head of State, who promised to support the young promoters of the initiative as a way of extend the experience to other regions of the country.
NO HOES NOR MACHETCHES
The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, António de Assis, stated on March 18, 2022 that farmers in the interior of the country were competing for hoes and machetes, due to a lack of local production, considering that this is one of the factors that limits the development of the sector. Neither hoes nor machetes. Things about the crisis… which has been going on for 48 years, right, General João Lourenço? The best thing is to fish with hoes and sow with hooks. Or, do as the Tugas did – plant the cabbages with the roots down…
For António de Assis, the lack of internal manufacturing of means of agricultural production, namely machetes, hoes, wheelbarrows, needles and fertilizers and pesticides conditions the promotion of agricultural production, leading farmers to compete for these means.
According to the official, the lack of knowledge and market are also among the factors that make the growth of agriculture in Angola unfeasible, arguing that the authorities’ actions should converge with the sector they manage.
“At the level of Catabola [província do Bié] finding seeds and pesticides is difficult, in the main regions where it is produced there are no hoes and in Bailundo [província do Huambo] hoes are being rented by the hour to be able to cultivate”, said António de Assis.
The country “does not produce hoes, we need to carry out economic diplomacy to attract investment and locally produce hoes, machetes, wheelbarrows, axes, watering cans, knives, needles to sew bags and other means of production”, he stressed.
“There are some positive steps in this direction, but they are still insufficient for the country’s needs”, he highlighted.
The minister was speaking during the second edition of Café CIPRA (Press Center of the Presidency of the Republic of Angola), which addressed the “Fostering of National Production and the Sustainability of the Strategic Food Reserve (REA)”.
The absence of a “solid market, which is the entire set that brings together laws, standards, procedures, logistics centers, roads and the environment itself where production is taken” also hinders the development of agriculture, according to the minister. “There are efforts in this direction, today it is possible to verify actions in this area, but we need more”, he highlighted.
In relation to what he considered a “sharp knowledge deficit” for agriculture, António de Assis pointed out that, in the interior of Angola, the sowing of corn and cassava “does not comply with the technical-scientific standards” of the sector.
With “correct sowing of corn”, he exemplified, production increases by 100%: “Planting cassava in agricultural fields is incorrect, I say this from a technical-scientific point of view and the same applies to planting bananas”.
“Angola must be a country focused on agriculture and we need to analyze the sector at all times to define parameters for joint action, all ministerial sectors must be linked to agriculture as it is a transversal sector”, he said.
Despite the current constraints”, noted António de Assis, “significant steps have been taken in recent years in the field of agriculture and fisheries and even during the pandemic the country did not experience a lack of food”. Nothing was said about whether farmers, contrary to the MPLA’s superior orders, are already planting cabbages with the roots facing down.
“And throughout the country there is a lot of local production, there are agricultural products with some frequency and quality at the country level. In the country, there is an awakening due to the need to produce, especially due to the difficulties of the past and the awareness of consuming local products”, he pointed out.
As an overseas province of Portugal, until 1973, Angola was self-sufficient, given the diversification of the economy… including the production of hoes… Let us not be afraid to learn from those who know more and did better, much better. Only in this way can we teach those who know less.
Angola was the world’s second largest producer of Arabic coffee; world’s first producer of bananas, through the province of Benguela, in the municipalities of Ganda, Cubal, Cavaco and Tchongoroy. In this region alone, so much banana was produced that it fed Belgium, Spain and the Metropolis (Portugal) in addition to the colonies at the time of Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe.
He was also the first African producer of rice in the regions of (Luso) Moxico, Cacolo Manaquimbundo in Lunda Sul, Kanzar in the Northeast, Lunda Norte and Bié.
Still in the East, in the towns of Luaco, Malude and Kossa, “Diamang” (Companhia de Diamantes de Angola) had over 80 thousand heads of cattle, including cattle, pigs, wool and goats, with an abundant production of eggs, milk, cheese and butter.
In the Baixa de Kassangue region, there was the largest cotton production area, with the Cotonang factory, which processed cotton, in addition to producing soybean oil, soap and bagasse.
In the Moçâmedes region, in the towns of Tombwa, Lucira and Bentiaba, there were large areas where fish salting was produced, as well as huge quantities of “fish meal”, exported to China and Japan.
Sheet 8 with Lusa