Luanda - Anyone travelling to the Dombe Grande commune, south of the city of Benguela, is likely to hear stories about supernatural practices that turn the town into a permanent stage of mysteries.
By Francisca Augusto and Venceslau Mateus
For several decades, the town, situated in the municipality of Baía Farta, has been known as the;Land of Witchcraft;, a designation that, despite reports, has never been scientifically backed up.
In fact, Dombe Grande is a land of contrasts and great natural charms, with inviting beaches, secular traditions and favourable conditions for agriculture.
Despite the myths and traditions, what many people don’t know is that the town has been transformed over the last few years into an agricultural potential, recording encouraging production rates in terms of cereals and tubers.
Today, many of the 44,236 inhabitants of this commune, which covers an area of 2,762 square kilometres, are engaged in subsistence and cash crop farming.
Unlike other regions of Angola, the commune is not famous in terms of agricultural production, although the trend is gradually changing, with large-scale production of beans, bananas, sweet potatoes and tomatoes, among other products.
Official figures leave no doubt that agriculture is making concrete steps in the region, the result of State investment and the commitment of local communities.
In 2020 alone, for example, the locality had a harvest of 11,000 tons of diverse products, numbers below the usual, as a result of Covid-19 pandemic and the invasion of insects that have harmed production.
Data shows that in the first semester of this year, over 30 tons of sweet potato, 20 tons of corn (on nine hectares) and 50 tons of beans were harvested.
The commune has a cultivation area of 10,500 hectares and is clamouring for investors, in order to develop agriculture in the municipality.
The region, strong in agriculture, focuses on economic and social development in the Dombe Grande Valley.
Formerly a sugar cane production field, which supplied the local sugar mill, the valley has been transformed into a huge cultivation field.
In many farms and agricultural properties, one notes the introduction of modern practices to improve the production process, with mechanisation becoming, lately, a fundamental factor for increasing productivity, especially in fruit growing and horticulture.
Farmers outcry
As an example, Domingos Mendonça, manager of Geripe Farm, says that the institution has greatly reduced production, due to a lack of fertilisers and seeds.
The farm expects to harvest, this year, more than 20,000 tons of corn and 30,000 tons of sweet potato.
For this farmer, who sees the informal market of Benguela as the priority destination of his produce, the poor state of the access roads is the main constraint to the flow of produce.
Although there is good will on the part of farmers, the lack of fertilizers and seeds is one of the obstacles to the process of agricultural production, but there are those who struggle day and night to make agriculture a source of revenue and income for local families.
This is the case of Joaquim Tchipalanga Farm, whose main product is bananas and which annually harvests 144,000 tonnes of that product.
The institution, which has 45 workers, is also struggling with the problem of fertilisers and seeds to increase production.
To cope with the difficulties in terms of seeds and fertilizers, the farmers appeal to the authorities for help in acquiring these products.
Before the war, which ended in 2002, the commune had valuable water resources that made the soil fertile for farming and preserved huge areas of sugar cane production, one of the largest in Angola.
The production was so large that it justified and financed the construction of the Cuio Railway, which links Dombe Grande to the port of Cuio village.
The war put an end to farming and destroyed the railway, leading the municipality to economic ostracism.
Agricultural production and the supply of fresh water in the region are guaranteed by the Coporolo river, which, during floods, deposits rich sediments, an important humus that makes its bed extremely fertile and suitable for cultivation.
