The World Bank and the French Development Agency have granted US $230m to support Commercial Agriculture Development Project (PDAC) in Angola. The four-component project will help reduce, in some cases, do away with obstacles in this field, aimed to speed up the process.
The project coordinator Pedro Dozi said that the objective is to help increase aggregate production per standard unit in the selected value chains and support the rise in average gross sales by agricultural / non-agricultural activities of beneficiary farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
He spoke of the increasing the portfolio of farmers with technical and financial assets or services. First experience for creation of conditions for productive alliances begins on November 3 of this year, covering the provinces of Malanje, Cuanza Norte and Cuanza Sul.
After evaluating this first experience, the PDAC plans to extend to the provinces of Uíge, Benguela, Huambo, Bié, Huíla, Bengo and Luanda. He further spoke of the ongoing efforts to create conditions for the number of beneficiaries to increase and in order to achieve the project’s development objectives.
So far, more than 300 expressions of interest for project financing have been submitted to the PDAC, of which 46 have business plans that are being analysed and improved to benefit from funds.
Meanwhile, the investment package has four fundamental execution components. They are the promotion and support for the development of agro-business -US $80m, production and marketing infrastructures-US $95m, institutional strengthening and improvement of the business environment- US $40m and project management, monitoring and evaluation – US $15m.
In terms of the recovery of agricultural infrastructure, the coordinator said that a survey of the needs for rehabilitation and subsequent recovery of the irrigated perimeter of Bom Jesus, in Luanda, is taking place. The infrastructure, he added, has the potential to benefit approximately 250 farmers, implying an investment in the order of US $580, 000.
