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Angola Food Crops and Livestock
The decline in marketed food crop production and the
rapid
growth of the urban population have caused a food crisis
in the
cities. By the mid-1980s, urban dwellers depended almost
entirely
on cereal imports, and the approximately 600,000 rural
displaced
persons were completely dependent on food aid from foreign
donors.
Local production of cereals met only half the national
requirement
in 1986 and totaled only about 300,000 tons--about 60
percent of
the yearly average in the mid-1970s. Decreased production
was the
result of general problems associated with the war,
including
deteriorating transportation and a lack of market
incentives for
peasant producers. By the late 1980s, malnutrition was
widespread.
Similarly, livestock production has declined. Both
cattle and
pigs are raised, but production fell from 36,500 tons
slaughtered
in 1973 to only 5,000 tons in the early 1980s. This
tremendous
decrease was the result of a combination of factors,
including the
departure of the commercial farmers, increasing disruption
from the
war (in this case from South African forces in the
southern part of
the country), and the deterioration of facilities and
services,
especially vaccinations, crucial for livestock production.
During
their occupation of Cunene Province in 1975, the South
African
troops allegedly destroyed some 1,500 water holes for
cattle,
severely damaging livestock production in that region.
Data as of February 1989
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