The Angolan government is going to subsidize up to 35% the price of fertilizers for agricultural producers, especially smallholder farmers, said yesterday the country’s minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.
António de Assis, who was speaking to the press at the end of the 9th meeting of the Economic Commission of the Council of Ministers, headed by the Angolan President, João Lourenço, said that producers will only pay the differential and that the Agrarian Development Fund (FADA) would pay the market value.
“This subsidy aims to make life a little easier for producers, especially family farmers, who, as we all know, went through some difficulties related to the climate in the last agricultural year and in some cases excessive rains, in other cases prolonged droughts, pests, all which limited, in a way, the final production and, as such, the income of these producers”, said the minister in statements issued by Angolan public radio.
According to the minister, without this support, farmers would have more difficulties in supporting current production costs, hence the need for government intervention, “to reduce the sale price of fertilizers to the public.”
According to António de Assis, cited by the Angolan state broadcaster, the government will make available 17 billion kwanzas (US$26M) for this purpose.
Angola saw some provinces in the south of the country affected by a severe drought, which it tried to minimize with the distribution of agricultural inputs, and also registered a plague of locusts in some regions, which caused significant losses to agricultural production.
