The development of the farming factor figured high on the agenda of the Angolan government to diversify its oil-dependent economy over the past years.
Citic Construction, a Chinese civil engineering company and one of the key players of post-war reconstruction process which contracted and built the 3.5-billion-U.S. dollar satellite town of Kilamba Kiaxi in southern Luanda, was now marching into the agricultural sector and introducing modern farming technologies into the African country.
Citic Construction was running two farms in Angola, each with an area of 10,000 hectares in the Uige and Malanje provinces respectively, which now served as a showcase of the development of the farming sector in Angola.
"Angola is a large country with the most plentiful of rainfalls in southwestern Africa,and we are trying to restore Angola's status as one of the main grain producers in African history," said Liu Guigen, General Manager of Citic Construction, Africa. Currently, the Citic farm in Malanje was the most modern and advanced farm in the country, and equipped with all farming machines the farm yielded over 10,000 tons of grains and beans in the last harvest season to the delight of the Agriculture Ministry, and other farm in Uige would be used for the same purpose and raising cattle as well.
Angola needed some 4 million tons of grains each year and currently the country was only able to produce 1.5 million tons and depended on imports from Brazil, Namibia and other countries to patch up the deficiency, Liu Gengui said.
"The only way out to achieve self-sufficiency was the establishment and development of a modern farming sector," Liu said, adding his company's efforts to develop the farming sector were supported by both the Chinese and Angolan government.
Liu said two farms in Uige and Malanje were only pilot projects and his company was negotiating with the Angolan government to open another 30,000-hectare farm in the central Bie province to plant rice with financial support of Chinese banks.
"Obviously there is a long way to go to develop the farming sector in Angola, but we are on the right track", Liu said. Angola, blessed with a national territory of some 1.25 million square kilometers, depended largely on imports of grains and food to feed its 23 million population.
Latest comments