Dondo - Fifteen banana producers in the municipality of Cambambe, northern Cuanza Norte Province, are benefiting from the "Cultivar Movement" project, implemented by the Sandagro Agricultural Consultancy company, said on Monday the company's director, Feliciano Sandambongo Chissapa.
The project, launched at the beginning of this year, aims to sensitise rural communities to adopt new techniques for growing bananas, with a view to increasing productivity.
Speaking to ANGOP in the commune of Dondo, in the municipality of Cambambe, as part of the project, he emphasised that it aims to implement new productive dynamics by training beneficiary farming families in new cultivation methods.
He added that the objective is to train farmers to expand banana production and to develop sustainable production systems by taking advantage of market niches and demands.
Feliciano Chissapa clarified that with the use of new techniques it will be possible to plant 2,500 clogs of banana trees using two metre bars and harvesting the same number of bunches in eight to nine months.
He went on to say that the techniques currently used by farmers do not allow for this level of production, which means that several tracts of land are exploited with low yields.
The company plans to hold next Saturday in Dondo locality the Banana Workshop with the aim to train farmers on techniques on the soil preparation.
The event will also focus on planting, the banana's vegetative cycle, conduction, diseases and pests that affect the banana tree, the banana population per hectare, harvesting, commercial and nutritional value and the banana market.
He stressed that the investment in bananas is due to the fact that this fruit is the business for the current and future times given its low production cost, easy use and because it is replacing bread on the Angolan breakfast menu and it can be eaten green (roasted, boiled and fried) or ripe.
"The banana crop, when done well, is a major factor in the development of families", he noted.
The project is focussed on Cambambe because this municipality is home to the Mucoso irrigated agriculture project, where bananas are the main crop.
Official figures indicate that the Mucoso irrigated perimeter was, until 1974, the second largest banana producer in the country, after Vale do Cavaco, in Benguela Province, whose production was essentially export-orientated.
Sandagro has been on the market for six years and operates in the areas of agricultural consultancy and advisory services in the provinces of Luanda, Bengo and Cuanza Norte.
DS/IMA/AC/MRA/jmc
