Resettlement, land reform boost agricultural production

Angola's ongoing agricultural recovery is being driven by the successful return and resettlement of displaced people and refugees, and a land reform programme granting property rights to rural farming communities. According to official figures, agriculture accounted for 12 percent of GDP last year, up from eight percent the year before. Angola has experienced three consecutive years of improved harvests, but pockets of food insecurity remain due to regional disparities in crop production and the difficulty of moving food from surplus areas to deficit areas. The primary land reform objective has been to promote the agricultural sector and so far almost four million people have benefited from the reform programme, according to a report by researcher Antonio David. Government support for returnees, ex-combatants and formerly internally displaced persons (IDPs), with the help of UN agencies and NGOs, has resulted in a "great contribution from these groups to their communities, because the majority produce their own food to feed their families and gain an income", David noted. Improved harvests and a steady reduction in the number of people in need of food aid showed that the "land reform process and resettlement programme of returnees ... can have an impact on food security if the government brings enough support to these groups", he added. Jean-Francois Dontaine, of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Luanda, told IRIN that "with the support of the international community, government's efforts to support agriculture [have led to] better production every year". However, "the problem at the moment is there's less and less support from the international community", although the government continued to prioritise the sector in terms of resource allocations. "This is an agricultural country - the major part of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods - we have to improve the sector and support new technologies for production," Dontaine pointed out. "I think the sector is on the right track, but we must continue to improve services linked to agriculture, and if the government continues to invest in agriculture through their extension services etc., then things will continue to improve year after year." In terms of the impact positive resettlement of returnees has had on agricultural production, Dontaine noted that "many of the IDPs that were resettled in 2002/03 are into their second or third [harvest] cycle". He said "there was a huge effort from the international community to support the distribution of agricultural inputs" and beneficiaries had received inputs at the right time. Rehabilitation of the transport infrastructure has also been stressed. "It's very important - if they [farmers] have no access to markets, it's a problem. We need access to isolated areas and to improve production there but, also, we have to support the commercialisation of that production," Dontaine commented. A new land law, passed in November last year, could improve Angola's agricultural prospects, said FAO official Odilio Fernandes. "One of the main problems before was access to land. The new law is addressing that issue and allowing communities to access land and register it, so they will have legal rights to the land," Fernandes noted. Although the new law would not entirely eliminate the possibility of conflict over land, it was a step in the right direction. "Some conflict may arise but we are training communities to prepare their own land delimitation, so they can take it to the ministry for registration," Fernandes said. "In [the central] Huila province we've helped three communities to register their land and they now have the documents to prove they are the owners of the land."