Humpata - The provincial deputy governor for the political, economic and social sector of Huíla, Maria João Chipalavela, defended this Monday, in Humpata, the need to extend the Family Development and Commercialization Project (SAMAP), in the other municipalities of the province, to help combat poverty.
In Huíla it has been implemented since 2018 in five of the 14 municipalities. In addition to Huíla, only Cuanza-Sul benefits from it, also with five municipalities.
The minister was speaking at the provincial evaluation meeting of the SAMAP project, which began in 2018 and is scheduled to end in September of the current year.
In Huíla it covers the municipalities of Caluquembe, Caconda, Chicomba, Cacula and Chipindo, which of the 30,000 families planned, have already benefited more than 21,000.
Maria João Chipalavela highlighted that the project has a model that must be taken into account when discussing family farming and rural extension in Angola, so the great expectation will be to revisit the forms of community organization, intervention mechanisms and at the same time speak of a family farming model in completely different contexts.
She mentioned that projects of this nature bring to the community vision and concepts such as Field Schools, community funds, which serve as paths to increasing income and consequently promoting food security within communities.
“This is a moment that allows us to think about a fundamental condition for the country’s economic development, not only in rural areas but also in terms of sustainable development, in a different context from the 1980s, which was an emergency and received many donations”, she explained.
To Maria Chipalavela, Angola is in an era of autonomy, of strengthening and empowering communities, to produce more and with quality, making them more accessible and cheaper.
She stressed that, in addition to cereals and vegetables, we need to look at other components that are important, such as water, the production capacity of the land, how to increase it and consequently the levels of commercialization, without forgetting scientific research, health, education and social protection as elements of this multidisciplinary approach, to have a better quality of life.
SAMAP is a project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, implemented by the Institute for Agrarian Development (IDA). It is financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Angolan Government and is being implemented in the provinces of Huíla and Cuanza Sul in five municipalities each.
The global value for the two provinces of 38 million dollars is focused on the institutional and financing components, of which 28 million are from IFAD, 8.2 million from the Angola's Government and 1.1 million from the beneficiaries' contribution involving resources locations and labor, which is scheduled to end in September of the current year.
The same project aims to increase productivity, production and commercialization of field products for selected crops in the project areas, such as corn, beans, reindeer potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and cabbage.
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