Lubango — The bilateral cooperation between Angola and Botswana, in agriculture and cattle, will bring advantages to be transformed into better quality of the meat that is produced, as well as boost the creation of cattle in Huíla Province, stated Thursday, in Lubango City, the secretary of State for Agriculture, José Amaro Tati.

Speaking to the press, during the visit of Botswana’s Agriculture minister, Christian Graaf, on Thursday in the southern Huila Province, the Angolan government official considered that the cooperation will bring about opportunities for local businesspeople.

Amaro Tati stressed that the reinforcement of ties between the two countries is crucial for the improvement of the quality of products.

Malanje — The Commerce and Industry Bank (BCI) on Thursday in Malanje Province launched the “agricultural credit of campaign”, making available over 18.6 million kwanzas for 139 peasants.

The launching happened in the locality of Kajiza, Kangandala Municipality, and initially the credit will benefit 139 peasants of the “António Agostinho Neto” co-operative and the “Punda” association. The money is to be reimbursed in ten months’ time, with five per cent interest.

On the sidelines of the launching of the project, the board chairman of BCI, Adriano Rafael Pascoal, said that the credit of campaign will not only serve to facilitate the agricultural activity, but also enable the connection between the peasants and the banking sector, which means they can place their money in this bank to gain other banking benefits.

On his turn, the governor of Malanje Province, Boaventura Cardoso, said that it is imperative the active participation of the entities involved in the project, aimed at materialising the goals of the executive turned to causing a boost in the country’s agricultural revenue.

With this launching, it rises to four the number banking institutions involved in agricultural credit grant in Malanje Province, namely Banco Sol, BAI micro-finanças, BPC and BCI.

Kenya’s bid for a larger share of the southern Africa fresh produce market took a fresh blow after the Angolan government banned banana imports from Kenya in a move aimed at curbing the spread of banana wilt disease in the region.

Banana wilt— a bacterial disease which first got its way into the region through Uganda in 2001— has since spread to nations in central and eastern Africa which produce and consume bananas in large quantities due to lack of a combined regional effort to control it.

The disease causes the fruit to ripen prematurely, forces leaves to wilt and the affected plants usually die leading to significant yield loss to farmers

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Luanda — The Angolan Government is rebuilding the country’s dairy potential that existed before the armed conflict. The information was released Wednesday in Luanda by the deputy minister of Agriculture, José Amaro Tati.

The official was speaking at the end of a visit to the Angola dairy company (Lactiangol), accompanied by the Portuguese minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries, Jaime Silva. He said there are in the country milk basins, some of which in steady development, like that of Wako Kungo and those of the country’s central highlands.

In order to boost the sector, according to the deputy minister, there are bank credits and public-private partnerships that will help Angola to start large scale production of milk.

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A new project in Angola will increase incomes of rural smallholders by improving agricultural productivity and revitalizing markets.

The US$49.5 million Market-oriented Smallholder Agriculture Project in the provinces of Bié, Huambo and Malanje will be partly financed by an IFAD loan ofUS$8.2 million.

The loan agreement was signed today at IFAD headquarters by Angola’s Ambassador to Italy, Manuel Pedro Pacavira, and IFAD’s President, Lennart Båge.

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