Ndalatando — Eight hundred thousand tons of fertilizers are needed annually to support agricultural activity in the country, with a view to achieving food security, according to the director general of the Institute of Agrarian Development (IDA), Felismino da Costa.

The director, who was speaking to the press on Monday in Ndalatando, Kwanza Norte province, said that the country uses less than 50,000 tons of fertilizers in agriculture, which makes it difficult to achieve food self-sufficiency.

During an act of delivery of funds to support rural schools, Felismino da Costa said that despite the work of the Executive to leverage the input sector, national production is still insufficient for the leap that is intended to be made in agriculture in the country.

Because of this, he stressed, peasant families, who constitute the basis of agriculture, have difficulties in accessing agricultural inputs, not because of financial limitations, but because of the country's inability to produce locally, a situation that inhibits the increase in national production.

Regarding technical assistance to peasant families, the director informed that it is still limited, due to the lack of specialized technicians, which contributes to the use of rudimentary methods in agricultural production.

He said that the IDA has 317 extensionists, a number that he considered insufficient to assist about three million peasant families in the country.

According to Felismino da Costa, IDA has used technicians trained in the agronomy sector for the technical training of peasant families, revealing that a process of recruiting new technicians for the institution's staff is underway. EFM/IMA/AC/DOJ