Improved cereal production despite obstacles

Despite improved cereal production since the end of Angola's civil war two years ago, the country remains unable to realise its full agricultural potential, according to a United Nations report. Results from a recent joint assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) showed that less than 5 percent of arable land was cultivated because of landmines and a lack of seeds, fertiliser and draught animals. Poor road conditions also hindered market activities and restricted access to food, particularly in the rural parts of the country. Despite these obstacles, cereal production was estimated at 713,000 mt, a 27 percent rise above the previous five-year average, mainly from an increased area under cultivation. As a result, about 1.12 million Angolans per month are currently expected to receive food assistance, compared to 1.4 million last year. Meanwhile, WFP said on Tuesday that efforts to resettle tens of thousands of returnees were being hampered by lack of funds. The agency had received only US $45 million, or 18 percent, of its two-year US $253 million appeal to feed 1.4 million returning refugees and displaced people. "The funding shortage is seriously undermining the resettlement process and reducing the incentive for people to return to their areas of origin," Sonsoles Ruedas, WFP deputy country director for Angola, said in a statement. The funding shortfall had forced the UN food agency to reduce cereal rations by 50 percent, and unless there were immediate new donations, no cereals at all would be distributed in September when the lean season started. "Many face unimaginable misery when they return home. Clean drinking water from protected sources is rare, there are very few schools or health clinics, and electricity remains only a dream in vast areas of the country. Now there is also very little food, which is essential if the repatriation process is to be successful," Ruedas added. An estimated 166,000 Angolans are still in neighbouring countries, where some have been living in refugee camps for decades.