Mbanza Kongo – Around one million cashew trees will be planted in the coming years in the municipalities of Soyo, Nzeto and Tomboco, a coastal area in the province of Zaire, as part of a program that aims to relaunch large-scale cashew and nut production, the provincial governor Adriano Mendes de Carvalho, informed on Thursday in the municipality of Nzeto.
Speaking at the opening of the 2024/25 agricultural campaign, Adriano Mendes de Carvalho revealed that around 5,000 hectares will be prepared for the cultivation of this plant on the province's seafront, considering that the relaunch of cashew production will contribute to the diversification of the national economy and the reforestation of marginal areas of the coastal zone, which It has a length of 250 km.
The governor, who launched the first cashew trees in the municipality of Nzeto, said that the project will benefit more than 7,000 peasant families and generate close to 1,500 direct jobs in its maturation phase.
“This project that we are witnessing today here in Nzeto can provide a greater aggregation of economic and social benefits, as well as contributing to the reduction of imports of cashew nuts and cashew juices”, he highlighted.
The agricultural campaign was launched with more than 43,000 hectares.
At least 43,273 hectares were prepared for the 2024/25 agricultural season in the province of Zaire, an increase of 3,275 hectares compared to the previous agricultural season.
For the success of the current agricultural campaign, which foresees a harvest of around 600 million tons of various products, five tons of massango, two tons of massambala, 10 tons of white corn and 20 tons of Santa Catarina beans were distributed to the peasants.
Regarding fertilizers, the agriculture sector in the region made 100 tons of simple fertilizer (ammonium sulfate) and 50 tons of compound fertilizer (12-24-12) available to farmers.
More than 40,000 peasant families are involved in the current campaign in six municipalities in the region, divided into 98 associations and 277 agricultural cooperatives.
Promotion of poultry farming
Four thousand chicks were distributed on Thursday to several families in vulnerable social situations in the municipality of Nzeto, as part of the family poultry farming promotion program.
Since 2022, when this program began to be implemented in the region by the Ministry of Agriculture, the province of Zaire has already been provided with 67,500 chickens, benefiting a universe of 7,200 families, including some small entrepreneurs.
DA/JL/MRA/jmc
