ANGOLA – The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) have approved a loan of US$105.19 million to Angola to implement the Agriculture Sector Reform Programme.
Speaking during the sealing of the deal, Pietro Toigo, the African Development Bank’s Country Office Manager in Angola said that the program will enable the government to close the food deficit and reduce food imports.
The programme is intended to strengthen agriculture policy and the business environment to improve food production and contribute to economic diversification.
“The Agriculture Sector Reform Programme aims to make smallholdings more productive and to integrate them into the general economy by improving the policy and regulatory framework to support the operation of agricultural input and product markets,” Toigo noted.
Mr Toigo explained that the project would also deepen reforms, to “move towards more efficient agricultural markets while strengthening the governance and capacity of public agricultural institutions
In addition, it will encourage the private sector to participate in agricultural markets to help increase Angolan grain and oilseed production.
According to the executives, the initiative would support the establishment of an institutional framework to implement national agricultural mechanization and irrigation policies, the agricultural water management plan and the fertilizer law.
The irrigation and mechanization policy will initially consist of developing roadmaps to implement a climate-smart policy and adopt cost-effective climate-smart technologies in agriculture and the food system.
The project will also provide small farmers in four provinces (Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul, Moxico, and Cuando-Cubango) with appropriate machinery and climate-resilient equipment to facilitate routine manual operations and strengthen the adaptive capacity of agricultural systems.
In the longer term, the programme will enable Angola to increase the number of smallholders – 50% of them women – with access to modern agricultural inputs through an information and communication technologies-based platform to increase the area under cultivation in the east of the country.
The programme will also support the creation of rural markets and information service centres for farmers in the municipalities, including digital platforms to enable them to access a range of services related to production and input markets.
The Bank’s support will also help to put in place policy instruments to stabilize cereal production and marketing in times of over- and under-supply.
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