Luanda – President João Lourenço announced on Wednesday the construction of various infrastructures with a social and economic impact on rural areas to avoid exodus and attract those in the cities to increase the local workforce.
The president made the announcement at the opening of the Council of the Republic meeting.
According to the Head of State, with the Integrated Municipal Intervention Program (PIIM) and the emergence of new municipalities, under the new Political-Administrative Division (DPA), the government intends to improve communication routes, build schools, medical posts and other infrastructure in rural areas.
The idea, the president said, is to keep families living in rural areas and attract those unemployed in the cities to increase the local workforce in those regions, which is responsible for the greater agricultural production that the country is beginning to see.
Family farming
President João Lourenço said the government will continue to support family farming with the different designed programs currently being implemented, taking into account the capacity already demonstrated by rural families who, through these programs, have improved their living conditions.
The president urged the government, political parties, churches and civil society to repudiate negative statements and to take the lead in encouraging rural families for the good results that agriculture is showing today in all the country's provinces.
For him, the success of the fight against hunger and poverty does not depend on increased imports or fiscal and exchange rate policy, but on the increase of food products supplied locally.
“Therefore, the key is to work harder and with better cultivation practices in order to achieve the highest possible yield per hectare,” Lourenço said.
João Lourenço acknowledged that the society has a tradition of paying homage to soldiers who stand out on the battlefield, culture makers, sportsmen and others, “but we almost never pay homage to those who, sunup to sundown, bend over with hoe in hand to ensure that there is no shortage of food on the tables of Angolans”.
The president stressed that with the peace that the country has enjoyed for 22 years, today's battlefield should be the agricultural fields, “from where farmers and peasants, with their selfless work, extract the food products that we no longer need to import”.
“We have to look at farming families with a different kind of respect and consideration, for the hard work they do for our well-being, our health and for providing us with our daily bread,” Lourenço said.
João Lourenço also acknowledged that the country is already producing a lot, but not enough to meet the demand.
“If we are determined with well-defined objectives, the government, businesspeople, organized and supported farming families, transporters and traders putting hands together for this common cause in the fight against poverty, increasing domestic production and food goods, we will be victorious,” he said. DC/ART/AMP
