Africa-Press – Angola. The Commercial Agriculture Development Project (PDAC) aims to invest in fruit production, with a focus on avocado, within the Lobito Corridor, to increase the income and resilience of small Angolan producers, according to the project manager.
The new line should be integrated into the next phase of the program, currently being structured, indicated Estevão Chaves.
“Our future vision at PDAC is the introduction of fruits and we are currently carrying out a study on the avocado chain, thinking about the Lobito Corridor and in integration with the Diversifica+ program, in order to introduce the fruit chain for our beneficiaries”, he explained, during the visit of a delegation of ambassadors from the European Union to the municipality of Chinguar (Bié)
“In the future, we really want to look at the issue of avocados, which is one of the focuses of the Lobito Corridor, to see if our beneficiaries can put avocados on the platform that is being built and export them,” he added.
The investment is part of the policy of reconversion of agri-food systems promoted by the Angolan Government, which aims to diversify agricultural production and reduce dependence on monocultures such as corn, with fruit emerging as a cash crop with commercial value and export potential, which can reinforce food security and improve the income of rural families.
PDAC, a project of the Ministry of Agriculture, financed by the World Bank and the French Development Agency, has already supported more than 525 business plans in six provinces — including Huambo and Bié, integrated in the Lobito Corridor railway route — and has more than 70 direct beneficiaries in the central region of Angola.
It currently includes 14 value chains, including corn, soybeans, beans, coffee, chicken, cassava, potatoes, eggs, wheat, rice, peanuts, goats and sheep.
The introduction of fruit should mark a new phase of the project and responds to the objective of the European Union and the Angolan authorities to enhance the agro-industrial potential of the railway corridor.
The Lobito Corridor, over 1,300 kilometres long, connects the port of Lobito, on the Atlantic coast, to eastern Angola and the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo), via railway line.
It is considered a strategic infrastructure for the transportation of minerals, but also for the flow of agricultural products, with the creation of agro-industrial hubs underway along its route.
The visit by the delegation of ambassadors from the European Union aims to strengthen cooperation in these Angolan provinces and showcase some of the projects financed with European funds.
Today in Chinguar, European diplomats met with farmers supported by PDAC, who explained how they increased productivity and were able to access bank credit.
PDAC operates through a logic of co-financing and risk reduction to attract commercial banks to the agricultural sector. “We are not a credit institution, but we are an entity that attracts credit,” explained the project manager.
The model is based on pillars such as “matching grants” (co-participated financing) and technical support for producers, mechanisms that, according to Estevão Chaves, make the program particularly attractive for commercial banks, in a context in which access to agricultural credit is still limited in Angola.
In Huambo, European Ambassador Rosário Bento Pais stressed that the EU invests not only in infrastructure, but also in economic diversification, education and good governance.
“May this Corridor be a good example and may it support the development of others [in Africa]”, he stated.
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