{"id":1737,"date":"2020-01-16T19:06:59","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T19:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seedsystemsgroup.org\/?p=1737"},"modified":"2020-01-16T19:06:59","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T19:06:59","slug":"angola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/2020\/01\/16\/angola\/","title":{"rendered":"Angola"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Angolan\nagriculture can perhaps best be described as a sleeping giant.  Prior the outbreak of civil war in 1975,\nAngola exported serious tonnages of maize and other grains.  Sadly, today, a full 18 years after the\ncessation of hostilities, smallholder agriculture is still highly undeveloped,\nlargely due to failed policies which favored large-scale production up until\nthe change in the country\u2019s leadership, in September, 2017.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Meeting with Emilia Jorge, Director, National seed service, Mr. Antonio Sozinho, National Director, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and Paulo Amaral, CEO, Jardins da Yoba seed company. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The good\nnews is that the new government of President Jo\u00e3o Loren\u00e7o gets it, and is putting a\nmajor priority on the development of smallholder agriculture.  My weeklong mission to Angola couldn\u2019t have\nbeen more packed with information and observations about how to develop\nAngola\u2019s seed systems.  For this I have\nto thank Mr. Paulo Amaral, CEO and founder of Jardins da Yoba seed company of\nLubango, and Jo\u00e3o Saraiva, principal agronomist of Jardins da Yoba.  On the government side the visit was\norganized by Dr. Dibanzilua Nginamau of the national agricultural research\ninstitute, and Mr. Antonio Sozinho, who met with me twice during my time in\nLuanda, and expressed great interest on the part of the Government of Angola in\ncollaborating with SSG as a catalyst for developing the country\u2019s seed sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Meeting with provincial agriculture leaders in Huila Province. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Angolan\ngovernment has fully endorsed a public-private model for seed supply.  Each year, it purchases several thousand tons\nof maize and millet seed from two of the country\u2019s large seed producers,\nJardins da Yoba and Kambondo Agropecu\u00e1ria.  I\nmet with the leaders of both these seed companies, and travelled to Lubango to\nvisit the production sites of Jardins da Yoba, and was highly impressed with\nthe vision they have for seed systems development, both on the side of private\nsector and the public sector.  Truly, the\ncountry is blessed to have such brave, visionary investors active in seed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big\nchallenge for private sector at the moment is to convert the current production\nand supply of seed of open-pollinated (non-hybrid) varieties of maize to hybrid\nseed production as a means of increasing the country\u2019s very low (approx. 1\nMT\/ha) average maize yields.  First,\nhowever, they need to identify the optimal public hybrid available.  In this they are being supported by CIMMYT\u2019s\nHarare breeding station, namely Dr. Cosmos Magorokosho, and we can only\nencourage this collaboration to continue and go far.  Based on my observations and discussions with\nJo\u00e3o, it would also be good to test some IITA hybrids, which may be\nearlier-maturing than CIMMYT\u2019s, and also well-adapted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Farmers receiving seed and fertilizer from the government subsidy program managed by the Instituto de Desenvolvimento Agricola.

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Angola is a\nfascinating country, now full of promise thanks to the improved policy\nframework put in place by the new administration.  While in Lubango I was excited and impressed\nto meet the Vice-Dean for Research at the Huila Polytechnic Insitute, who wants\nto establish a seed production and seed company management course at his\ninstitute, and even invited me to help out as a guest lecturer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, yeah,\nit\u2019s all-in on seed systems development in Angola.  Donor institutions interested in African\nagriculture should pay heed.  This one is\nprimed for major<\/strong> impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Angolan agriculture can perhaps best be described as a sleeping giant.  Prior the outbreak of civil war in 1975, Angola exported serious tonnages of maize and other grains.  Sadly, today, a full 18 years after the cessation of hostilities, smallholder agriculture is still highly undeveloped, largely due to failed policies which favored large-scale production up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}