Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Niamey (Agenzia Fides) - Good news for Africa's agriculture. This year Niger, affected by a serious food shortage (see Fides 21 September 2005), has a record harvest with a surplus of 457,237 tons. According to the local authorities the excellent result is due to abundant rainfall and scarcity of parasites such as locusts.
In 2005, with an surplus of 21,000 tons of cereal, about 2 million people in remote areas faced a serious food shortage because of drought and invasion of locusts.
The government, international humanitarian organisations and NGOs many of them Catholic, organised the distribution of food aid for 3 million people .
According to the food crisis prevention network this year west African countries and the Sahel region have had a good harvest of about 15 million tons of cereal.
Food security is the main objective of African countries. Angola, which had a flourishing agriculture under Portuguese colonial rule, aims to boost this sector devastated by 27 years of civil war. Vast rural areas of Angola are still infested with antipersonnel mines and unexploded bombs which make it impossible to resume farming in otherwise fertile territory.
The government of Luanda in 2007, has promised to assign 163 million dollars to re-launch farming and create 200,000 new jobs in this primary sector. At present agriculture represents only 8.6% of Angola’s GNP, compared to 57% of its oil producing industry. In fact Angola, African’s second largest oil producer, will join OPEC on 1 January 2007.
The government’s programme to boost national agriculture comes also after the smaller cereal harvest this year compared to 2005: 626,000 tons compared to 881,000. This is due to lack of rain in 10 provinces, scarcity of infrastructures in 10 provinces, and the presence of explosives in fertile areas of the country. So far more than 4,000 areas in Angola have been cleared of mines. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 16/12/2006 righe 36 parole 414)
