Andulo – At least 160 tons of tomatoes were harvested and marketed in the current 2023/2024 agricultural campaign by producers in Andulo municipality, in central Bié province, ANGOP has learnt.
The information was disclosed Thursday by Andulo's Agriculture, livestock and fisheries director, Paulo Chissonde, as part of the municipality's participation in the 5th Provincial Potato and Maize Fair to be held from August 19 to 24 in Cuito city.
He stressed that tomatoes were grown on a fifty-hectare area, which, along with other products, underlining that the idea is to attract new investors, who are preparing more than 90,000 hectares for the next agricultural season 2024/2025.
He added that the tomatoes produced, in addition to Bié, are sold in the provinces of Malanje, Moxico, Lunda Norte and Lundas Sul, Huambo and Luanda and Zambia, via the Benguela Railway (CFB).
He stressed that it is one of the crops that has largely produced in the municipality, which is home to more than 70 prominent producers in the sector, who put around 400 tons of the product on the market every week.
This has made the municipality of Andulo self-sufficient in tomatoes,Paulo Chissonde said, underlining the need for the government to support them with more agricultural inputs to encourage it to increase production not only of tomatoes, but also of other crops.
In the 2023/2024 agricultural campaign, the municipality prepared 82,000 hectares, where corn, wheat, beans, potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, eggplants, fruit and various vegetables were also sown.
It is estimated that around 422,384 tons of various products will be harvested by the end of the season in the region. LB/BAN/MS/TED/AMP
