Saurimo - Farmers from the Inácio cooperative and the Sambukila as well as the Quimbo do Virgílio farms base in the Province of Lunda-Sul on Sunday benefited from agricultural equipment such as tractors, hoes, machetes, fertilisers, fertilisers, various seeds, among other inputs, with a view to boosting grain production.
The provincial governor of Lunda-Sul, Daniel Félix Neto, handed over the equipment during a field visit to the respective farms and took the opportunity to call on the farmers to focus on large-scale grain cultivation, such as rice, maize, wheat, soya and beans.
He reiterated that the province has favourable conditions for producing rice in large quantities, for example the irrigated perimeter of Luvo in Mona-Quimbundo commune, which is already harvesting 35 tonnes of the cereal this year, revealing that individual producers are also on the right track, planting rice by flooding, due to an experience that has been passed on by Japanese entrepreneurs.
According to Daniel Félix Neto, the farmers have shown themselves to be resilient and willing to continue doing the work, hence the need to appeal to other cooperatives and private farmers to take up the challenge.
He also assured that the Japanese will be producing rice seeds in the province, with a view to materialising the National Promotion Plan for Grain Production (PLANAGRÃO) at the level of the province.
The official guaranteed that the local government would continue to support producers in the family and business sectors, in order to make the province self-sufficient within four years.
In turn, the administrator of the Mona-Quimbundo commune, Rafael Muchimata, defended the need to continue expanding rice production fields, a cereal that is also already being grown by small producers in the locality, a fact that requires the replication of technical knowledge to empower farmers.
On the occasion, the director of the provincial agriculture office, Nelson Senguitale, predicted a harvest of around 200 tonnes of rice in the province's four municipalities.
For the current agricultural year, Lunda-Sul has more than 50,900 farming families, who have cultivated an area of 82,371 hectares.
At the moment, the provincial Agriculture and Fisheries office has registered 48 co-operatives and 416 farmers associations in Lunda Sul.
QB/JW/QCB/MRA/DOJ
