Farmer's Weekly (South Africa)
Global fund to help small-scale Angolan farmers boost food security
On a visit to Angola in late March, officials from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) met with government authorities to discuss ways to promote climate adaptation among small-scale farmers.
This was according to the magazine Farmers Review
Africa, which said in a report that the meeting had been aimed at ensuring greater support for smallscale producers in tackling issues such as erratic rainfall, drought, rising sealevels and the increased frequency of storms.
The report stated that more than 50% of Angola’s population lived near the coastline, which meant it was critical to make food production systems there more resilient to adverse climate conditions.
The IFAD delegation met with Angola’s ministers of finance; agriculture and forestry; and fisheries and marine resources. They discussed the role of smallscale farmers in ensuring food security in Angola, the challenges posed by climate change, and strategies to transform and modernise the country’s agriculture and fisheries sectors.
IFAD stated that it had co-financed eight projects in Angola for a total investment of US$257 million (around R4,6 billion), reaching over 486 000 rural households.
It added that two-Ȳthirds of the population in Angola were dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, with women providing most of the sector’s labour force.
An estimated 80% of the country’s farmers were smallholders. Their productivity, however, was low and they generally produced little or no surplus, IFAD explained.