Malanje - The National Plan to Promote Grain Production (PLANAGRAO) plans to produce six million tons of cereals and legumes by 2027, to increase food security levels in the country and reduce imports.
The information was given today, in this city, by the Minister of State for the Social Area, Maria do Rosário Bragança during the central event of the 49th anniversary of National Independence, which Malanje welcomed, having guaranteed that the fields are being prepared to achieve the goal.
She said the Family Farming Acceleration and Food Security Reinforcement Program is underway, implemented by the Agrarian Development Support Fund (FADA) and which aims to increase productivity on the part of individual farmers, cooperatives, agricultural associations, micro and small companies.
For this program, she highlighted that the government has 85 billion Kwanzas available, which has already made it possible to support more than a thousand cooperatives with 2,664 motor cultivators and 355 tractors, expected to reach around 200,000 hectares of cultivated land and 3.5 million of tons of diverse products that are part of the basic food basket.
For the 2024/2025 agricultural year, opened last October, more than 6 million hectares of land have been prepared and 222,000 units of equipment and various work instruments have been made available for family farming, with emphasis on hoes, machetes, scythes, motor cultivators, seeders and others.
52 thousand tons of fertilizers and 12 thousand tons of various seeds were also distributed, which represents an increase of around 100% compared to the previous year.
The production factors for the 2024/2025 campaign were made available in a timely manner and are expected to cover approximately one million and two hundred thousand peasant families, assured the minister.
On the other hand, she reiterated that the extension of the Social Protection Strengthening Program “KWENDA”, until 2029, will be reinforced to prevent and combat vulnerability, as well as human capital, resilience and response to climate shocks.
In the tourism sector, he highlighted that the country has the opportunity to become an attractive tourist destination, taking into account the charms it has, and that Malanje has an enviable tourist potential, which needs to be transformed into reality.
As for the blue economy, Maria do Rosário Bragança assured that this subsector must be engaged in the process of diversifying the economy, taking advantage of the gains from peace.
Regarding product prices, she said that this is due to the inflationary shocks that the world's main economies are experiencing, with the increase in different production factors and given that the country is still heavily dependent on imports, its economy is permanently exposed to this trend.
And to overcome these effects on the Angolan economy or mitigate them, the Executive is working hard to raise food security levels, with access to a balanced diet, alongside the diversification of the economy, whose programs and actions are ongoing.
Therefore, she said that efforts must continue to increase national production and employment, making the country less dependent on food imports and reducing social inequalities, to guarantee a better quality of life.PBC/DOJ/DOJ
