More than 20 business plans prepared as part of the commercial agriculture project in Angola

30 March, 2021

The commercial agriculture project in Angola continues to advance in its second year of implementation, exceeding the figure of 20 business plans prepared for farmers and agri-food SMEs in Malanje and Kwuanza Sul. This milestone forms part of the Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP) financed by the World Bank on which Incatema has been working since 2018. Its goal is to enhance the transition from family and subsistence-based farming to commercial agriculture, with its increased yields, improved quality and highly exportable produce, sales of which will boost producers’ income and equalise the country’s trade balance, which is highly uneven owing to the large amount of food imported by Angola for internal consumption.

The technical team supports the farmers and small entrepreneurs in the preparation of their business plans, intended to expand or improve their production and quality of their produce and to reduce post-harvesting losses, improving production infrastructures and/or food preservation and processing.

The business plans improve the competitiveness and profitability of the farming activity.

“The business plans offer producers a medium and long-term vision, thanks to a permanent monitoring of the investment and act as a tool to help farmers understand the steps they need to follow”, points out Ana Romero, Director of Consulting at Incatema Consulting & Engineering. “In this way, they become an essential tool for improving the level of competitiveness, income and profitability of the agricultural activity”.

The tool used by the technical team to prepare the Business Plans for the estates is Rural Invest, a methodology developed by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

In addition to the business plans, in the last 8 months, the company’s technical assistance team has centred on training producers in Good Farming Practices (GFP), in negotiations with commercial banks to favour access to credit for the producers and on fostering productive alliances with the local business community.