Lobito - The excessive bureaucracy involved in providing agricultural credit is limiting the increase in production at the D 4 Reis farm, located in Hanha do Norte, Lobito municipality, Benguela province, ANGOP learnt on Monday.
This information was provided by its managing partner, Anselmo Borges, who said that they plan to produce various crops on an area of 150 hectares, but if they had access to bank credit, they could increase it to 400 hectares.
The farmer explained that if they had credit, without bureaucracy and with repayments stipulated at minimum interest rates, they would have greater adherence.
According to Anselmo Borges, what's holding producers back is the excessive bureaucracy.
‘It's not worth applying for a loan of 100 million kwanzas and taking forever to receive it, even after several demands, when our investment this year, in particular, was 280 million kwanzas,’ he said.
his view, if the financial institutions made at least 300 million kwanzas available, his farm could easily reach a production of 400 hectares.
The farmer said that D 4 Reis has agricultural fields in different places, producing peppers, beans, onions and tomatoes.
‘We're producing a lot of peppers,’ he said, adding that 75 hectares of beans are being harvested in Dombe commune.
With regard to the sale of the products, he said they were mainly destined for the provinces of Moxico and Cuando Cubango, as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Anselmo Borges also highlighted the difficulties in acquiring fertilisers and insecticides.
‘Last week, we bought a 50-kilo bag of urea for 32,430 kwanzas, but today it costs 35,748 kwanzas,’ he said.
He also referred to losses due to the weather and pests.
He also revealed that his company made an investment of 20 million kwanzas, but there was a failure in irrigation and in the purchase of some insecticides that didn't have good active substances, which resulted in a loss of ten million kwanzas.
‘We have to be persistent. What we lose today, we can gain tomorrow,’ he said optimistically.
‘We ask the Executive to find ways to lower the value of agricultural inputs, since we want to increase national production,’ he said.TC/CRB/DAN/DOJ
