![[Angola] Samap project to reach over 86,000 smallholder farmers](Images/2018/05/smallholder_farmers_africa.jpeg)
[Angola] Samap project to reach over 86,000 smallholder farmers
At least 86,000 and 460 peasant families in the province of Huíla will benefit in 2019 from the first phase of the implementation of the Family Agriculture Development Project (Samap) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Caconda, Cacula, Caluquembe, Chicomba and Chipindo, located in the northern and eastern part of the province of Huíla, are the first municipalities to benefit from the project, valued at 68 million and 600 thousand US dollars.
Samap is a project funded by the Angolan Government through the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the director of the provincial Office for Agriculture and Forestry (Huíla), Mariana Soma said.
With a 12-month duration, the project focuses on supporting the production and marketing of family farming products through small farmers in intervention areas to improve production techniques, increasing productivity in cereals, legumes, tubers and various horticultural crops.
It added that this factor will also allow the target group to obtain surpluses for its commercialization and, subsequently, to avoid imports of food.
He assured that the start-up will be preceded by meetings with the administrative authorities of the municipalities concerned, where the project will be presented, selected and identified in the communes of intervention, that is, by registering the beneficiaries to group them associations and / or cooperatives.
He said that the beneficiaries will be technically trained in production, post-harvest conservation and commercialization, through field schools created for this purpose.
He went on to point out that the next step is to elaborate the mapping and geo-referencing of villages, training of technicians from the Institute for Agrarian Development (IDA), the start-up of field schools in the intervention municipalities, identification of the infra irrigation structures and the creation of conditions for mobility.
The expected result is to create more employment in family farms, improve nutritional livelihoods and facilitate the development of value chains in the agricultural sector.
