Two thousand and 695 peasants in Gabela, Cuanza-Sul province, yesterday benefited from 280 thousand kwanzas each, within the framework of the Family Agriculture and Commercialization Development Project (SAMAP)

This funding, given to farmers affiliated with 77 field schools, aims to develop agricultural activities focused on increasing production and productivity, with a view to improving agricultural practices for selected crops. On the occasion, the head of the Department of Agriculture in Cuanza-Sul, Abraão do Nascimento, urged the beneficiaries to make good use of the amounts allocated to each peasant, as the sector will carry out due monitoring.

In Cuanza-Sul, SAMAP, under the management of the Agrarian Development Institute (IDA), is implemented in the municipalities of Amboim, Cassongue, Conda, Cela and Quibala, and to date has resulted in the creation of 615 field schools, where they are controlled more than 20 thousand peasants. The head of IDA’s local department, Daniel Epalanga, indicated that, of the total number of existing field schools, 430 were created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which led the process of distributing 82 million Kz to the associated peasants.

“Once FAO’s actions were completed, we began supporting the creation of field schools and providing reinforcement funds to them”, he explained. The municipality of Amboim has 33 field schools, the largest in the province, which corresponds to more than 40 percent of the programming. The municipal administrator of Amboim, Darcy Afonso Fernandes da Costa, expressed that the support for peasant families, with monetary values, reflects the Executive’s commitment to combating hunger and poverty.

Peasant Otília Lopes, from the Lúcio Lara field school, said that her school will experiment with new crops, using the money received, such as beans and peanuts. In turn, peasant Morais Jorge, from the Victória é Certa field school, said that his school will invest in improving new production techniques, mainly vegetables, such as tomatoes, reindeer potatoes and cabbage, and make the fund continues to grow.

SAMAP is a Family Farming and Commercialization Development project supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, implemented by the Institute of Agrarian Development (IDA), which has financing from the International Fund for Agrarian Development (IFAD), Angolan Government, and the beneficiaries, in a global value of 39 thousand and 569 dollars for the provinces of Cuanza-Sul and Huíla, starting in 2018 for a period.