The Angolan government plans to spend around 1.2 billion kwanzas (US$1.3 million) importing improved seeds to increase production on key crops, reports Portuguese news agency Lusa.
A public tender, published in the state-run Jornal de Angola newspaper, details which countries each type of seed – cashew, cocoa, robusta coffee and dendém palm – will be purchased from, as well as the amounts and expected costs.
Henrique do Nascimento António, director-general of administrative services at the National Coffee Institute, told the Emissora Católica de Angola radio station that the seeds are part of a national plan of plantation renewal, introducing “more productive, healthy plants that are capable of increasing production.”
Angolan authorities are increasingly focused on leveraging the country’s agricultural potential, with programmes like the Angola Commercial Agriculture Project pouring US$230 million into bolstering productivity and market access, and partnerships with allies like Brazil and China.
[See more: Angola lands major agricultural investment from China’s CITIC]
The Angolan government designated the largest sum, 476 million kwanzas (US$521,000) or nearly 40 percent of the total, to purchase robusta coffee seeds. Cocoa is the second largest at 330 million kwanzas, followed by 202 million kwanzas for pre-germinated dendém palm seeds, and 196.2 million kwanzas for cashew seeds.
Many of the hybridised seeds will be sourced from fellow lusophone countries and nearly all from Africa. At least 1.5 million kilograms of cocoa seeds will come from São Tomé and Príncipe, 1 million units of dendém palm seeds from Malaysia and Mozambique, the latter also supplying 1.2 million units of cashew seeds. Uganda will provide 1,700 kilograms of robusta seeds.
Nascimento António emphasised that these investments in improved, high-yield seeds “could contribute significantly” to production volume. So much so that within five years, Angola “will also be able to export.”
