Increasing agricultural production in Angola
With around 10 percent of Angola’s arable land currently under cultivation, the country’s agricultural productivity and crop yields are extremely low. Given that more than half of Angola’s poor are located in rural areas and depend almost exclusively on agriculture for their livelihood, it was fundamental to boost the agriculture sector’s institutional capacity, in particular in areas such as irrigation, policy analysis and agricultural statistics. FAO was approached with a view to establishing new farmer field schools in the provinces of Bié, Huambo and Malanje, as well as training master trainers in the target areas and establishing training curricula. The technical assistance and rural extension provided by the project was geared towards organizing farmers, strengthening markets and adopting the appropriate techniques and innovations to the local context, in an attempt to boost food and nutrition security.
What did the project do
Calling on its experience under a previous project, during which a farmer field school network was set up in Bié and Huambo, FAO worked closely with the Market Oriented Smallholder Agriculture Project to identify target communities, prepare content for the field schools and organize the different field school groups. Facilitators and master trainers were trained to implement high-quality field schools, technical and methodological support was provided and efforts were made to promote production chains, with local producers structured around their economic objectives.Impact
Feedback from the participants themselves demonstrates that the field schools approach has empowered small producers in the target areas. The schools are now considered the most appropriate methodology to strengthen local agriculture production, increasing social cohesion (through equitable male-female participation), adapting mechanisms to local needs and covering aspects both technical and political in nature. All of these aspects favour strengthened food security and nutrition.Activities
- More than 13 000 smallholder farmers were trained in use of the FFS methodology.
- 29 training sessions of facilitators were completed in the three provinces, with a total of 461 participants.
- A total of 501 FFS are now operational – 249 in Bié, 126 in Malanje and 126 in Huambo.
- 60 participants completed the master training course (24 in Malanje and 35 in Bié), of which 16 (27 percent) were women.