Cela - At least 16 agricultural cooperatives, on Wednesday, in the central Cuanza-Sul Province, received five tractors, with their respective implements, and 11 power tillers, with a view to mechanising family farming in that side of the country.
The initiative by the Agrarian Development Support Fund (FADA), part of the first phase of the Family Farming Mechanisation Programme, covered farmers in the municipalities of Cela, Cassongue, Quibala, Amboim, Conda, Mussende, Ebo, Porto Amboim and Seles.
The respective agricultural equipment was awarded on credit, and the beneficiaries will pay a total of 50 million kwanzas for each tractor and 10 million kwanzas for each motor-cultivator, amounts that will have to be paid back over four years.
As regards this initiative, the executive director of FADA, Renato Baptista, reiterated that the distribution of tractors and motor-cultivators to the cooperatives aims to stimulate an increase in agricultural production in the province.
He added that these means would make it easier for farmers to expand their production areas which will result in the strengthening of food security, fight hunger and improve the quality of life of peasants.
Renato Baptista said that, in Cuanza-Sul, 111 projects organised by FADA are underway, of which 95 have already been reimbursed.
For his part, the provincial director of the Agriculture Office, Ladeira Chambula, said that the delivery of these means will make it easier for peasant families to mechanise farming, instead of working in a manual way.
The administrator of Cela, Manuel Mateus, said that the delivery of the means to the cooperatives will strengthen agriculture in the communities.
In the 2023/2024 agricultural campaign in the province, one million tonnes of various products are expected to be harvested.
IS/LC/QCB/MRA/jmc
