Camabatela – The Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, António Francisco de Assis, reaffirmed the Angolan Government's commitment to continuing the repopulation of the Camabatela Plateau with cattle to provide animal protein to citizens.
The government official, who was speaking Wednesday in Camabatela (Ambaca), specified that the Executive, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Minagrif), chose to create the necessary infrastructure for cattle to grow and reproduce healthily.
Addressing journalists, regarding the visit to a private animal breeding, vegetable and fruit production project, he highlighted, among the infrastructures, the construction of parks, paddocks, drinking fountains, corrals and laboratories, within the scope of the program repopulation, already underway.
He clarified that the ministry had to make a reversal in terms of action, with the creation of infrastructures for the transport, accommodation and treatment of animals, highlighting the commitment and contribution of the private sector in observing the conditions and dynamics that the Executive has created to boost the national economy.
With an area of 12 thousand square kilometers, the Camabatela Plateau is a region rich in animal production, with favorable conditions for the development of agriculture, beef cattle farming and the breeding of small ruminants.
Approved by the Council of Ministers in 2017, the Camabatela Plateau Repopulation project provided for the import of ten thousand and 500 heads of cattle, eight thousand for confinement and two thousand and 500 for reproduction.
'The aim is for the Camabatela Plateau, which includes the provinces of Cuanza-Norte, Malanje and Uíge, to be self-sufficient in the production of cattle for slaughter and repopulation', stressed the minister.
The Camabatela Plateau was responsible for supplying 60 percent of the beef consumed throughout the northern region of Angola, before independence in 1975.
The province of Cuanza-Norte has around 32 thousand heads of cattle, the result of various investments from the public and private sector, with particular emphasis on the municipalities of Ambaca, Cambambe and Samba-Caju.
The district has a total area of 21 thousand and 646 hectares of pasture, of which 21 thousand and 394 are natural and another 252 hectares improved by local breeders.
The province also has 53,764 goats, 14,000 pigs, 14,145 cattle, 100,154 birds and 202 horses. EFM/IMA/AC/DOJ
