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Angola AGRICULTURE
By the end of the colonial period, a variety of crops
and
livestock were produced in Angola. In the north, cassava,
coffee,
and cotton were grown; in the central highlands, maize was
cultivated; and in the south, where rainfall is lowest,
cattle
herding was prevalent. In addition, there were large
plantations
run by Portuguese that produced palm oil, sugarcane,
bananas, and
sisal. These crops were grown by commercial farmers,
primarily
Portuguese, and by peasant farmers, who sold some of their
surplus
to local Portuguese traders in exchange for supplies. The
commercial farmers were dominant in marketing these crops,
however,
and enjoyed substantial support from the colonial
government in the
form of technical assistance, irrigation facilities, and
financial
credit. They produced the great majority of the crops that
were
marketed in the cities or exported.
After independence, the departure of Portuguese farmers
and
traders in the rural areas undermined agricultural
productivity. In
response, the government set up state farms on land
formerly owned
by the Portuguese and established the National Company for
the
Marketing and Distribution of Agricultural Products
(Emprêsa
Nacional de Comercialização e Distribuição de Produtos
Agrícolas--
Encodipa) to maintain the rural trading system. Neither
body,
however, was successful, and by 1984 the government
started phasing
out the state farms and turned production over to
individual
farmers. In December 1985, the government also put most
rural trade
back into private hands. To help peasant farmers, the
government
established agricultural development stations and provided
bank
credits for small-scale agricultural projects. Several
hundred
state farms were to be turned over to associations of
tenant
farmers as an embryonic form of cooperative. The
association was to
buy or rent tools for shared use, share marketing
initiatives to
strengthen prices, and share transport. By the end of
1985, the
Directorate of Farm Marketing controlled 4,638 farm
cooperatives
and 6,534 farmers' associations; but of these, only 93
cooperatives
and 71 associations were operational.
In the late 1980s, the country faced serious problems
in
resuscitating agricultural production. By 1988 the
departure of the
Portuguese, rural depopulation, and the physical isolation
of the
farming areas had almost totally halted commercial
production of
such cash crops as coffee and sisal, as well as the
subsistence
production of cereals. Production was stagnating because
of
marketing and transport difficulties; shortages of seed,
fertilizer, and consumer goods for trade with peasant
farmers; and
the impact of the war on planting, harvesting, and yields.
Land
mines and fear of attacks had forced peasants to reduce
the areas
under cultivation, especially fields distant from
villages, and to
abandon hopes of harvesting some planted areas. Moreover,
the
internal migration of peasants to safer areas had resulted
in the
overcultivation of lands and decreased yields.
Despite these obstacles, there were some successes. The
relatively secure Huíla Province maintained a fair level
of
production, and the reorientation of government policy
away from
inefficient state farms and toward peasant producers
promised to
provide services to and boost production by peasant
farmers. By the
end of 1987, there were twenty-five development stations
providing
services to peasant producers in ten provinces, and four
more were
being set up.
Data as of February 1989
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