Africa-Press – Angola. Anyone who arrives at Leprosaria da Funda, in the municipality of Cacuaco, is confronted with several residences around them. Inside, several compartments have doors abutting each other. At Jango, some patients chat while waiting for the results of their medication.
Reporting on Libolo’s land, we went to Fazenda Cabuta, about twenty-five kilometers from the town of Calulo, the municipality’s political-administrative headquarters. This is a colossal private investment (not required), in an area of 2,000 hectares, 1,300 of which are, at this point, completely covered in coffee.
Divided in five facilities (Handa, Quingungo, Kissala and Casanha), this unit agricultural has the particularity of presenting the entire chain of the production process coffee transformation.
&share farm has a production capacity of more than 500 tons of cherry coffee, but due to its age and factors linked to labor, construction costs production and endoclimatic factors we have only been reaching 300 350″, explains the manager, Bruno Miguel Muhongo.
O young agronomist trained in Algeria, looks at the dynamics that the farm is having and believes in “better days”, especially with the expansion of space productive.
“From here In a few more years, we will achieve what our ambitions are, but when the we are going to take a step, we have to evaluate the costs and, of course, the benefits,” he says.
In concretely, Bruno Muhongo referred to a vast area to be explored, practically virgin, which is being deforested. “This is a very old farm and the our strategy involves its expansion, we have been looking at the costs for this undertaking, namely with the increase in the workforce”, underlines.
Expansion of the exploration area
In this height, of the vast property only 630 hectares are controlled, while another 670 hectares are targets of the deforestation process. And that, how it was for us explained, it is necessary, as the farm has been running for many years, with coffee plantations with more than 100 years of life.
Bruno Muhongo adds, therefore, that the commitment to production quality follows to all coffee plantation maintenance techniques, something assumed as “flag” at Cabuta Farm.
A betting on the deforestation of large hectares in order to discover more coffee is, also in line with a coffee plantation rejuvenation program, with the production of seedlings by seeds, with the ambition 200 thousand by next year and others in vegetative form.
“We have state to implement a seedling production strategy, which involves reaching at least 200 thousand seedlings. They are already ready for production next year, that is, in the short term”, he says, recognizing that current production, with more than 104 years old, presents himself “old”, to ensure optimal profitability.
But, An undertaking of this size requires appropriate technical equipment. And that that “makes you sleepy” to Bruno Muhongo, when mentioning that a coffee production involves “many machines, which ends up being, many sometimes a great difficulty in terms of technical support.”
“This is a great constraint, as most equipment is imported”, he explains, showing himself to be particularly concerned. On the day when When we visited Cabuta, the agronomist was worried about “a disc for the coffee, which comes from Brazil and with very high costs”. These technical deficits, at the time of production Equipment breakdowns are multiplying, he adds.
Production selective
It is historic. Coffee production is declining as coffee plantations age, which involves the production of new seedlings. “Let’s see how we go achieve these objectives by next year and, thereafter, continue to produce seedlings to replace the old ones”, he highlights, noting that one of the main difficulties in the country is what calls the “nutrition deficit” of own coffee plantation.
E why? Bruno Muhongo’s answer is no could be clearer: “At the level of coffee production farms, We noticed that there is a difference at the time of harvest. In one, coffee is ripe, in another it is still green and in another it is still in the ripening phase. That’s it originated, fundamentally, due to difficulty in nutrition”.
Continuing, “at the time of the coffee harvest, large farms, such as Cabuta, they can’t do selective harvesting.” The agronomist has the recipe: “Pick the red berry, then wait to harvest the yellow one and, subsequently, the berry is already dried, normally already in paste form”.
Since a production and drying, passing through From peeling and roasting, to commercialization, we saw the entire chain. “Here we have the entire coffee chain. Production, yards, which constitute the production area drying, peeling, roasting, commercialization of the final product, which is Calulo coffee, Bela Negra coffee, which is in powder and grain form, in addition to a special production, which is Café Avacu”, explains Bruno Muhongo, the manager of farm.
We travel part of all these areas. A visible total frenzy, with many people deforesting spaces, looking for more coffee plantations in vast territories of the farm.
Race against time
No Libolo seems to have no hands to measure. For coffee producers, there is something like a race against time. The café has recovering its price in the main markets and this encourages producers.
O Cabuta’s manager later reveals that to enter the production chain Local manufacturing of Café Bela Negra and Café Calulo capsules is planned.
A justify the investment in this segment, Bruno Muhongo is peremptory: “We are to gradually enter a market, which is competitive. We have been commercialize coffee powder and beans, but today if we look at the market, we we consume it in capsule form. If we want more profitability in the commercial and production, so we have to follow the market, which is demanding capsules.”
O coffee produced at Fazenda Cabuta already covers, according to the calculations made by its people, close to 30 percent of internal needs, judging by their acceptance.
Bruno Muhongo speaks of his experience: & quot; I lived in a country (Algeria) where a lot of coffee was consumed, at the level of the Maghreb region. We are here talking, We would already be having coffee (laughs).
&share The experience I had there and the one I have here tells me that in terms of consumption, In fact, we are still far from what manufacturing industries would like”, says the specialist. It recognizes, however, that the numbers of other units that also have roasting areas have also been significant for Angola’s potential.
With With eyes set on other markets, Portugal is currently the main destination for exports of coffee produced at Fazenda Cabuta. “A country more connected to farm and with greater acceptance”, says Bruno Muhongo, who leads a team 150 to 200 people directly linked to coffee plantation maintenance work and which skyrocket to 400 at peak production, in addition to another 30 employees permanent employees and an equal number of casual employees.
O manager adds that the main focus of this agricultural unit is exports, hence the particularly active commitment to the continuous opening of more agricultural spaces within the various Cabuta units, with the goal of increasing profitability.
“A level of the domestic market, Fazenda Cabuta has already reached a desired level of commercial sales”, he adds, before taking us to a warehouse he is concentrated all production throughout the year. “We have here around 250 thousand kilos of coconut coffee”, shows Bruno Muhongo, explaining, afterwards, all the phases that involve the roasting process.
“It will be, So, the icing on the cake”, highlights the agronomist, in conversation, interrupted several times, to correct something that was not was in order, as was the passage through the roasting area, with “some things messy”.
Commitment permanent social
A Cabuta commune, precisely where the farm is located, sees very with a project of this size, which offers numerous jobs. “We have serious social responsibilities towards the population of this commune, as we provide employment to more than half of the population of active”, explains Bruno Muhongo.
Something, In fact, we would confirm both the entrance and the interior of the unit agricultural. And, more clearly, “there is always someone from Cuanza-Sul, especially from Cabuta, working on the farm, especially in peak seasons, where we reach have close to 600 people.”
But, The social commitments of this agricultural unit go beyond jobs. In region where access roads are particularly critical, almost impassable, especially in times of heavy floods, the connection of twenty- five kilometers to Caculo, has been benefiting from maintenance works, in line with Cabuta’s social responsibility, to the satisfaction of population, who have no other way to reach the village.
This We were able to see, when we were on our way to Cabuta, crossing many motor vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles to circulate in relative safety.
Attractions tourist attractions in Cabuta
Beyond of its vast area, for the production of coffee, the privileged location of Cabuta, gives it, in other words, a status one of the country’s favorite tourist areas. This is where it is, for example, the Viewpoint, from which it is possible to see the Caculo Cabaça area and the entire downtown Cuanza.
There is There are also historical sites of reference, such as the Cemitério dos Alemães, another of Swapo’s former military, the Chapel, Grotto and others of rare beauty, attracting countless tourists, who have the Hotel Rural Fazenda da Cabuta as their base, a development with availability for fifty-eight rooms, created think about rural tourism.
Na Cabuta highlights the regular presence of tourists, especially Spanish, Americans, French and Portuguese.
Return to the production of palm oil
One detail that does not go unnoticed, entrance to Fazenda Cabuta is the number of palm trees, which take us to its interior. We were told that they are just part of a vast project to large-scale production of palm oil, for which something very close to 30 thousand palms.
&share palm oil production is a bet that we intend to win, as we have quite a lot of potential on the farm”, says Bruno Muhongo, showing himself particularly safe.
Now in the commune of Quissongo, another of our stops, due to agricultural projects, we found ourselves, right away, as it sounds to say, with José Manuel Luango, which is taking the first steps towards reactivating the production of palm oil on its 460-hectare property.
How how “surprised”, this 68-year-old farmer told, showed part of its artisanal production. “We have palmar, we do palm oil, we are in a coffee project combined with palm trees and we walk around 500 liters per month”, explains Zé Manuel, a former construction technician.
Want among his peers, as well as among Agriculture entities in Libolo, Zé Manuel has long been considered a living example of resilience and source of inspiration for many people, since time, despite the difficulties. He works with 23 direct people, in addition to collaboration of workers.
Explain that of the total area of the farm, 150 hectares are undergoing rehabilitation and are intended to coffee production, “a great wealth” as you say, but it requires patience. “Our focus now is coffee, but in the past it was cereals, tubers such as cassava in various hectares”, highlighted Zé Manuel.
He opens and “decodes the secret: “Like this farm, when the we already had coffee, we returned to this activity, but first some savings were necessary, as coffee requires more costs”, he highlighted, to justify investing in other crops.
“Just about two years ago, we started working in the café”, he adds, before show part of what is being done, so that the farm returns to the times golden.
Difficulties access
As in other units in the interior of Libolo, access to Zé Manuel Farm continues to be the main bottleneck factor for production in higher levels and conditions to meet market demand.
Direct, the farmer states: “Our main difficulty is the access roads, we continue to say, me personally, that if the State had to support something, it would be enough to “find a way” in my access line”.
Adds that, because of the condition of the road, the car has broken down. “I walk here, breaking cars and cars, almost every day,” he says.
A starting from the Cabuta corridor, he is, for now, the only active farmer, something that entails “huge responsibility”, as he acknowledges. “The others don’t cooperate, it becomes difficult, we don’t have adequate equipment, we are left to remedy every year, we break springs, cars, etc”, again regret.
Zé Manuel adds that, because of the roads access, cultures that in the past were among the most profitable, are no longer part of producers’ priorities. “We are afraid of produce a certain type of crop, such as tomatoes and other vegetables, because access is not good, if it rains we will accumulate huge losses. All the Producers are on alert,” says the farmer.
One day before we reached his property, he had just received, from Gabela, about of 3,000 coffee seedlings. “When I returned, I prayed that I wouldn’t rained, because if that happened they wouldn’t reach Calulo and then continue to Gabela in search of more coffee plants”, he says.
When this newspaper reaches the reader, at least 4,500 coffee plants will already be in be planted in a vast space in “tchitaca” by Zá Manuel, how is it prefers to call. He also took us to see the place that will receive Gabela’s plants and another that is being opened for replanting.
Zé Manuel seems to cultivate some modesty – very typical of farmers – when say that “at this moment what I have is not yet a farm, but a “tchitaca”, because this will only happen when we reach 100 tons of commercial coffee”.
“Here We are creating a completely renewed plantation and we will continue with this process. In this forest, what are you seeing? there, underneath there is coffee, we just have to open it and clean it, in two or three years, begins to produce a lot”, he highlights, indicating that this is the destiny of resources.
“Let’s go direct our few resources in that direction and within two or three years we can achieve our goals”, he guarantees.
Insisting on roads, this farmer couldn’t be clearer: ” If If we want Angola to develop more quickly, let’s just change the tertiary roads, because this will help a lot of us to invest and many people working more and more”.
“One entrepreneurial giant sleeping in him, with an absolutely remarkable career, the kota Zé Manuel is someone who inspired successive generations of farmers in the Libolo”, who says this is municipal director of agriculture, Barroso Saizama, who referred to him as an “example to follow.
Access to bank credit
How the majority of farmers, Zé Manuel, complains about the “too complicated” for access to bank financing. He makes fun of the ten commandments, which he considers “so hard, so hard, so hard, that no human being on this earth can fulfill them.”
“That That’s what more or less happens, the banks make so many curves, there’s a lot of demand that no one can do”, he says, before remembering that there are three or four years, some banks designed projects, to which some farmers joined, but without results so far.
“We we joined, sent the documentation, but then they came with other demands, the people get tired”, he adds, recalling losses of significant amounts with the elaboration of a project, “which is never financed”.
Something disillusioned, Zé Manuel even says that he will no longer look for the bank to financing. “What is here is the result of own funds, there are already many millions, you need to have a lot courage, for someone my age (68), for example, to have to pick up your reserves and invest in the land”, words of the farmer born in Galusso, Libolo.
Farms out of sight in Libolo
No Libolo, the data presented to us shows agriculture with everything to be more powerful. From the outset, arable land, abundant rain, rivers enough and, more than that, people with an attachment to the art of working land, in a region that increasingly plays a crucial role in the country’s food chain.
The numbers are impressive. Just coffee, between large, medium and small, there are almost 1,700 producers, spread across different villages in the Calulo communes, Cabuta, Quessongo and Munenga.
OK It is worth listing a few. Rombo Santa Maria’s “core” The plantation of vines, currently covering more than fifty hectares, which guarantee the production of red wine and various liqueurs, in an industry set up in agricultural enterprise.
AND, As mentioned above in this piece, there is also Fazenda Cabuta that calls to you the large-scale production of coffee and whose brands, from its roasting, They are, today, a consolidated presence in the Angolan market. To coffee, Cabuta adds the palmar, for the production of palm oil.
A Canduma, another large unit, works in the citrus fruit sector and a variety of fruits. It has high production and already exports to some countries. At In the same line, there is Cleomas, who is considered, who stands out, especially in production of lemon, tangerine and orange and other fruits. Reference also for the Nganzenza and Belo Horizonte farms. The first stands out in the production of corn and black beans and at this time the largest quantity of cattle has, while the second has a grinding mill, for processing cereals.
Medium units
Das medium farms there are references that must be made. The “Bem Estar”, in the commune of Calulo, specifically in Gango, has been on the market for seven years and focuses on meat, which is guaranteed by a workforce of 350 heads of cattle and 135 goats. Also producing beef, in Calulo, there is the Quitila Farm, with a herd of 750 head of cattle.
Already in the commune of Quissongo, there are two other medium-sized units. The farm Beatriz, with five years of activity and dedicated to the production of honey, potatoes reindeer, tomatoes and watermelon, as well as Tunguno, which invested in the vegetable area, such as tomatoes, cabbage, onions and eggplant.
Who, also, it guarantees the production of corn, soy and goat meat at the Luaty farm, very close to the municipal headquarters of Libolo. In the commune of Cabuta there is the Farm Jú Martins, dedicated to coffee production.
“Earth Viva”, that’s what another medium-sized farm is called, based in the commune of Munenga, very focused on corn, reindeer potatoes and onion. In the same location is the FLAA Society, a organization of three young people trained in the field of agriculture and which produces, in addition from corn and onion, to soybeans, cabbage, tomatoes and cucumbers.
There is five years on the market, Fazenda PAJEP works in citrus fruits, corn, tomatoes, cabbage and animal husbandry.
Jornal de Angola
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