The Commercial Agriculture Development Programme (CADP) reaches 172 business plans prepared

16 February, 2023

The Programme for the Development of Commercial Agriculture in Angola (CADP) has reached in January 2023 the figure of 999 applications from farmers to participate in the programme and receive technical assistance in the preparation of business plans for their farm, 172 business plans prepared, 57 investment projects approved and 39 credits granted.

The granting of bank credit to agricultural producers is linked to several factors: the hiring of an agronomist and an accountant to professionalise the work on the farm; the improvement of working, accommodation and transport conditions for the people working on the farms; and the implementation of actions to protect the environment and natural resources.

"These conditions benefit farm workers, both men and women, as the hiring of women and young people in the area has been promoted, given the situation of vulnerability and unemployment of these two groups," says Ana Romero, director of consultancy projects at Incatema Consulting & Engineering.

The programme aims to change the Angolan agricultural sector from a non-professionalised, unprofessionalised and unproductive family farming to a commercial agriculture with quality products, professionalised jobs, access to credit and access to markets.

PDAC is a programme funded by the World Bank and the French Development Agency, with technical support from the FAO. It is institutionally framed within the Angolan Ministry of Agriculture and developed in two major corridors comprising the following provinces: (A) Luanda-Bengo-Cuanza Norte-Malanje and, (B) Luanda-Bengo-Cuanza Sul-Huambo-Bié-North Huíla.

The World Bank and the French Development Agency carry out a follow-up visit to the programme

A delegation from the World Bank (WB) and the French Development Agency visited the project in December 2022 to follow up on the project activities and verify that the recommendations made after the mid-term evaluation in February 2022 are being carried out. The main conclusion is that, despite its complexity and the adverse weather conditions in 2022, the Programme is progressing according to plan, towards achieving its objectives.

The main objective of the programme is to improve productivity and increase agricultural production, while also facilitating access to bank credit and markets for beneficiary smallholders’ and agricultural SME farms. Specifically, the PDAC works with smallholders’ and agricultural SME farms in selected value chains (maize, beans, soya, coffee, cassava, sweet potato, potato, eggs and poultry).

The CADP has also developed important agreements with the country's main commercial banks to agree on a line of credit for agriculture and livestock activities.

Incatema began working with this programme in 2017, carrying out an initial diagnosis of different existing infrastructures in the project intervention areas, as well as the geolocation and subsequent creation of a QGIS database with the settlements and the farms in the areas included in the project.

"We are currently working on two separate technical assistance contracts. On the one hand, we support the realisation and implementation of business plans to improve production and productivity on farms and in the processing and transformation of the SMEs. On the other hand, we are also working on the design and implementation of public-private dialogue platforms for the value chains included in the Programme. It must be borne in mind that joint action by private investment and public research/innovation institutions is necessary to consolidate a commercial agricultural sector that takes advantage of all the country's potential," adds Romero.

The programme started in 2017 and will run until 2024.