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Angola
is recovering from three-decade long civil war which had profound
impact on the whole country, in general, and the food security
of Angola, in particular.
Agriculture has been the backbone of the Angolan society from
time immemorial. Angola used to be the food basket of Africa in
the 1960’s. It used export food commodities to other countries
of Africa and Europe. Unfortunately, Angola facesfood deficit
due to the aforementioned civil war and the displacement of hundreds
of thousands of the peasant population.
Despite its large arable land, good climate and sufficient rainfall,
Angola imports most of its foodstuffs from abroad. Even though
the return of internally displaced persons to their places of
origin is a positive development, it has to be noted that returnees
went back to their areas of origin with no or little support to
stand on their feet. Farmers who returned to their places of origin
need farm implements and seeds to cultivate their land so as to
become self-supporting. Even though the government of Angola and
international humanitarian organizations have supplied what they
could afford to the farmers, the need is greater than the supply
so far provided to the peasants.
Currently, international humanitarian organizations have either
left the country soon after the emergency phase was over or do
not have the necessary funding to help farmers to acquire seeds
for cultivation. SHAREcircle is currently supplying seeds to five
thousand farmers in the provinces of Bie and Kuando Kubango. These
seeds cost substantial amount of money from overseas which, is
hard to generate every year for the current project beneficiaries
or future ones that need assistance in the supply of seeds.
SHAREcircle strongly believes that the answer to the seeds supply
problem is to grow and multiply seeds locally in Angola. The government
of Angola and particularly the provincial government of Bie is
more than willing to allocate fertile land for seeds multiplication.
Seeds for multiplication could be easily obtained in Angola itself.
In addition, we believe that seeds multiplication in Angola is
cost effective than supply seeds from other countries. To that
end SHAREcircle needs a tractor, which costs around $50,000.00,
to implement the seeds replication project. The tractor needed
will have two functions:
1) It will plough the land for seeds replication and it will
be rented to farmers in the two provinces, at a lower price, in
order to generate money for its fuel and maintenance, and at the
same time to help farmers to grow more food.
2) The seeds multiplied in Angola will be distributed to farmers
who can not afford to buy seeds.
Moreover, SHAREcircle would like to plough a total of 50 hectares
of land to grow maize and beans. From the above-mentioned land
we could easily grow maize and bean seeds enough for two thousand
farmers in the first year.
We could increase the size of the land for seed multiplication
in the following years. As a result, the number of farmers to
be assisted with quality seed will increase.
We believe this could improve the food security of family households
in the provinces of Bie and Kuando Kubango where SHAREcircle implements
its projects now. We also believe that farmers in the areas assisted
with seeds will not be a burden to the government of Angola or
the international community.
We strongly appeal to any donors and our supporters to either
donate a tractor or funancial resources to give us to the tools
to help farmers in Angola.
Your help make a difference in the lives of the disadvantaged
farmers in Angola because it will not " ... give them a fish,
but it will teach them how to fish ...," which will not only
enable them to become self-relient, but it will also enable them
to pass the gift on to others.
Thank you,
Guerra Freitas
Executive Director,
Rev. Julius Belser
Treasurer ,
Ahmed M. Ahmed
SHARE Angola Country Representative
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If you would
like to contribute to the Seeds Replicaction Project in Angola,
by helping to buy a tractor, please: Mail-in
your donation by clicking here. You can also donate
online here or by phone by calling (847)
733-1276. Please make sure to mention that
the donation is toward the Seeds replication project.
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