The municipality of Ganda is developing a series of agricultural projects aimed at producing cereals, with wheat attracting the attention of the authorities, with the aim of feeding PLANAGRÃ with 1800 tons. In relation to coffee, the municipal administrator, Francisco Prata, has no doubt that the ongoing actions, supported by 80 thousand seedlings already planted in the ground, will give the country an international status as a producer
These days, the commune of Chicuma appears to be the capital of the province in cereal production, with corn and wheat crops standing out. As the municipal administrator highlights, production levels are still not satisfactory, which is why the challenge was launched to the national and international business class to invest in large-scale production and, in effect, contribute to PLANAGRÃO strictly complying with the objectives for the which it was designed.
Arable land, climate and rain are conditions that Ganda already has, with the level of precipitation to satisfy those who regularly sow the seed in the ground. In the 2022/2023 agricultural year, 600 tons of wheat were harvested in a project supported by 500 families, endorsed by the Catholic Mission of Cassipera, in the commune of Chicuma, which currently has the province of Huambo as the only destination for the cereal, where flour and spaghetti pasta industries have been installed.
Father Sabino Wahanhika, from the aforementioned mission, believes that, with a little more opening of the purse strings at banks, the product can be supplied to other provinces of the country. The industries to which the cultivated product is supplied are those that finance the cooperative and make the inputs it needs for production available to it. The level of production is not yet what is desired, but the priest assures that actions are underway to triple it, because “in the 2022/2023 agricultural year we had an area of approximately 700 hectares, with more than 500 farmers, both small and large”, he highlights .
The project’s mentor asks banks to overcome current bureaucracy in accessing credit for small farmers, so that the province of Benguela, through Ganda, can produce wheat on a large scale, as the country still imports a considerable part of product. In fact, on this topic, during a discussion, specifically, of the General State Budget (OGE), the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, José de Lima Massano, stated that the country needs to seriously invest in the production of foods. The governor noted that from the net international reserves that the country has, every now and then, just over 400 million dollars come out just for food imports.
Father Sabino also warns of the need for the Government to look with concern at the access roads, which appear to be “Achilles’ heel” when it comes to the flow of products from the countryside to the city. The municipal administrator of Ganda, Francisco Prata, joins Father Sabino’s lamentations and maintains that the flow of products still continues to be one of the main problems that local producers have been struggling with. “The connection between villages and communes is still very poor”, he recognizes and plans to expand wheat production throughout the municipality.
Despite the difficulties highlighted, the government official appeals to national and foreign businesspeople to invest in the food production segment in Ganda, believing that the State’s investments will reverse most of the current problems. Alongside wheat production, the municipality began to launch, in the current agricultural year, the process of relaunching coffee. Through a model cooperative, just over 80 thousand seedlings were planted, but in the administrative stock there are more than 500 thousand to hand over to producers and anyone who wants to embrace the coffee relaunch project. “We want Ganda to regain its currency, which is coffee”, he reaffirms, hoping that, in three or four years, Ganda may even have coffee to export. In colonial times, Ganda was one of the main producers in the central-south region of the country, with Arabica coffee predominating at the time.
“Finish” hunger with national production
Approximately three years ago, Ganda was on the list of locations in the country with high levels of hunger, having even recorded deaths due to lack of food and malnutrition. Given the current scenario, the Municipal Administration sat at the same table with producers (small, medium and large) with the aim of finding the best formula to solve the problem. In the consultation held, the lack of agricultural inputs such as seeds, hoes, machetes, multicultivators and motor pumps to promote agriculture and, in this way, produce food on a large scale was “diagnosed”. According to the administrator, given the problem diagnosed, a program was defined which provided all types of support for producers.
Galvanized as they were, depending on the resources made available, the producers took on the challenge and placed crops on the land such as corn, beans, massambala, wheat, cassava, as well as planting fruit trees, notably mango trees, orange trees, lemon trees and tangerines. Focused on combating hunger, they used sowing of ginguba, reindeer and sweet potatoes, vegetables and other crops, capable of ending the lack of this basic necessity. “Today, we can say that there are no hunger problems here in the municipality. The peasants and the cooperatives produced enough to feed themselves and even to be able to sell”, boasted the ruler.
