The Agricultural Abundance Of Angola

Angola is a country with a rich history and diverse culture, boasting vast natural resources and a fast-growing economy. With a focus on rebuilding after years of conflict, Angola's agricultural sector has seen significant changes.

Historically, Angola was a major exporter of agricultural produce, including coffee, maize, sisal, bananas, tobacco, and cassava. However, the civil war that lasted from 1975 to 2002 disrupted the country's farming sector, leading to a decline in exports and a shift towards subsistence farming.

Today, Angola's agricultural landscape is diverse, with small-scale and commercial farming coexisting. Cassava, bananas, maize, and sweet potatoes are among the country's top crops, with cassava being the primary crop in 2019/2020. Angola's agricultural sector faces challenges, including landmine contamination and limited rural infrastructure, but it is slowly recovering and contributing to the country's economic growth.

Cassava

• Funge de Bombó, or funji/funje: a cassava porridge made by mixing cassava flour and hot water to form a thick paste. Funge is a staple dish in Angola, often eaten with fish, pork, chicken, or beans.
• Kizaka: a dish made of stewed cassava leaves flavoured with fish, beans, or peanut sauce.
• Bombó Frito: sun-dried cassava chunks that are rehydrated, fried, and served with roasted or boiled peanuts, cheese, or melted butter.
• Farinha Musseque/Farinha Fina: cassava that has been pounded or grated, sometimes fermented, sun-dried, and then toasted. It is often eaten with fish soup or sprinkled on palm-oil beans.
• Kikwanga, or kwanga, chikwanga, cassava bread: cassava is soaked, pounded, and steamed in banana leaves. It is a staple in Northern Angolan and Congolese cuisine.

Bananas

The banana is an elongated, edible fruit, botanically a berry, produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant, and all the above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure called a corm. The leaves of banana plants are composed of a stalk (petiole) and a blade (lamina). The base of the petiole widens to form a sheath; the tightly packed sheaths make up the pseudostem, which is all that supports the plant. Cultivated banana plants vary in height depending on the variety and growing conditions. Most are around 5 m (16 ft) tall, with a range from 'Dwarf Cavendish' plants at around 3 m (10 ft) to 'Gros Michel' at 7 m (23 ft) or more.

In Angola, the banana plantations are thriving in the tropical plains. The most common breed of bananas found in Angola is the Cavendish banana, which is easy to acquire and maintain. It is also of a preferable size and is in the highest demand in the market. The banana farming industry in Angola has remarkably increased over the years, bringing the fruit up to the most popular in the local market. The fruit has a wide range of uses, from the leaves, which are sometimes used as decorations, to the fruit, which is used in various activities such as beer-making and the preparation of stews and salads.

The banana industry in Angola has also been a significant source of revenue for the country, which is experiencing an unstable economic situation. The fruit now makes up more than 50% of the nation's total fruit exports and is among the country's biggest export commodities after oil.

Maize

Before Angola's independence from Portugal in 1975, the country had a flourishing tradition of family-based farming and was self-sufficient in all major food crops except wheat. Maize was among the crops exported by Angola, alongside coffee, sisal, bananas, tobacco, and cassava. However, the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002) disrupted the country's agricultural productivity, and many small-scale farmers reverted to subsistence farming.

In recent years, Angola has been working to rebuild its agricultural sector, and maize remains an important crop. In 2018, Angola produced 2.2 million tons of maize. The country is also shifting from using maize landraces to locally adapted materials with improved varieties. This shift is supported by partnerships with organisations like CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) and the Angolan national agricultural research institute, IIA.

Angola has great potential for advancing its agricultural sector, with its arable land and water resources. The country is also receiving support from international organisations like the World Bank, which has funded projects like the Smallholder Agricultural Transformation Project (PROTAF) to boost agricultural productivity and market access for commercial farms.

Sweet potatoes

One such dish is mufete, a weekend meal consisting of grilled fish, boiled plantains, sweet potatoes, chopped onion, and flour. Another is calulu, a dish with dried fish and vegetables, including sweet potatoes, garlic, and palm oil. Calulu is often served with rice, funge (a type of porridge made with cassava), palm oil beans, and farofa (toasted manioc flour).

Palm oil

Angola has long been a producer of palm oil, with large plantations run by Portuguese commercial farmers producing palm oil before the country's independence in 1975. In recent years, Angola has continued to produce palm oil, with 280,000 tons of palm oil produced in 2018. However, Angola is a net importer of palm oil, importing $178 million worth of palm oil in 2021, primarily from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India, and China. In comparison, Angola exported only $374,000 worth of palm oil in 2021, with the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Brazil, Nigeria, and Cuba as the primary destinations.

The Angolan palm oil market has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and a report from January 2024 provides an overview of the market, including production, prices, foreign trade operations, consumption, and a forecast for the market's development in the medium term. This report also includes insights from local market experts and semi-structured interviews with representatives of the main market participants.

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