Luanda — The Economic Commission of the Cabinet Council on Tuesday approved a Program to Accelerate Family Farming and Strengthen Food Security 2023-2026, valued at more than 85 billion Kwanzas.
Speaking at the end of the 2nd ordinary meeting chaired by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, the CEO of the Agrarian Development Support Fund (FADA), Felisbela Francisco, said the program will be covered by the FADA Strategic Plan for the period 2023-2026.
Felisbela Francisco said the program is aimed for family farms, namely individual farmers, cooperatives, agricultural associations, micro and small businesses.
She also justified the beneficiaries by the fact that family farming plays a fundamental role in promoting the diversification of national agricultural production and strengthening food security, being responsible for more than 82 per cent of the food products that make up the basic food basket.
The program, Francisco said, intends to strengthen the acceleration and diversification of agricultural production, with an emphasis on mechanizing family farming and strengthening farmers' technical capacity.
It will also seek to increase funding in a simple, decentralized and with less paperwork to raise family incomes and contribute to job creation and to improve food security and achieve food self-sufficiency.
In order to achieve these objectives, She said that a number of measures have been defined, in particular the creation of a single family farmer register, which will make it possible to control the farmers who benefit from state support and that of their partners, in order to avoid duplication and the same people benefiting.
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Another measure contained in the program is to boost funding for the sector using the funding lines in FADA's Strategic Plan, as well as to continue the process of funding the mechanization of family farming, the first phase of which was recently closed.
Felisbela Francisco said that the second phase currently underway began with the registration of equipment suppliers and plans to finance more than 3,000 pieces of equipment.
By the end of the program, the plan is to finance more than 1,119 cooperatives and to create a technological package combining equipment and inputs, where a working capital fund will be made available for farmers to purchase raw materials (seeds, fertilizers, etc.).
Another objective of the program is to establish agreements with at least 54 companies with experience in agricultural activity, so that they can act as anchors and help farmers with technical assistance and guaranteed purchase of production.
In terms of results, from an economic perspective the program aims to achieve around 196,332 hectares of cultivated land, in terms of production the intention is to harvest around three million 557 thousand tones of various products, while in the social area it is planned to maintain existing jobs and create other employment opportunities, benefiting more than 660 families. PA/VC/DAN/AMP
