VZCZCXRO8026
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHLU #0311/01 0871646
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 281646Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY LUANDA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3838
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 LUANDA 000311 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/S 
PRETORIA FOR USDA/FAS 
STATE PASS USAID FOR AFR/SA (ELOKEN, IMACNAIRN), DCHA/FFP 
(GEILERTS) EGAT/AG (JRTHOMAS) 
USDA FOR FAS/ITP 
EMB GABORONE FOR USAID (JBROWN) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR ETRD EAID AO
SUBJECT: ANGOLA'S NEW AGRICULTURE MINISTER PREDICTS SHARPLY 
REDUCED MAIZE HARVEST 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary.  On March 22, 2007, Ambassador Efird and 
Econoff called on Agriculture Minister Afonso Pedro Canga. 
According to Canga, this year,s heavy rains will reduce the 
corn harvest to about 60,000 metric tons, compared with 
450,000 tons in 2006.  The cassava harvest will be adequate, 
but transportation problems will make supply to the maize 
growing areas difficult.  He agreed Angola,s farmers must 
move from subsistence to commercial farming.  To achieve that 
goal, he recognized the need for improved transportation, 
flood control, seed and fertilizers, as well as the need to 
develop markets for agricultural products, improve rural 
finance, and offer agricultural extension services in rural 
areas.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  On March 22, 2007, Ambassador Efird paid an 
initial call on Afonso Pedro Canga, Angola,s Minister of 
Agriculture since late January 2007.  Ambassador Efird 
reviewed U.S. concerns about agriculture and current USG 
projects in Angola and Minister Canga responded in kind with 
a tour d,horizon of Angola,s agricultural potential and 
challenges.  Ambassador Efird was accompanied by Econoff. 
Minister Canga was joined by new Vice Minister for 
Agriculture and Rural Development, Filomena del Gado along 
with his chiefs of staff, Tobias Lopes and Bonifacio de 
Almeida. 
 
Food Security and Statistics 
---------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Heavy rains will reduce this year,s corn (maize) 
harvest.  Canga predicted a harvest of just 60,000 metric 
tons (MT), compared with last year,s bumper harvest of 
450,000 MT, but acknowledged the unreliability of most 
statistics in Angola.  (Note:  Canga may have misspoken, but 
he would not be alone.  On March 27, an Agriculture Ministry 
official in Cuanza Sul Province predicted an extremely 
unlikely 300,000 metric ton maize harvest in that Province 
alone.  End note.)  Canga believes a cultural change making 
Angolans more willing to give information is a key part of 
improvement in statistics available.  The National Institute 
of Statistics and the Ministry of Agriculture together with 
the European Union are developing standards for collecting 
information and make Angola,s agricultural statistics more 
reliable, he concluded.  Ambassador Efird noted that USAID is 
working with the Ministry on an early warning program for 
food security (FEWSNET) and urged the Minister to meet with 
USAID expert Gary Eilarts and support his work. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Ambassador Efird noted that the United States 
Government,s projects in Angola, while small, are meant to 
serve as pilots for future large-scale Angolan projects, to 
increase the value of products and to assist local groups in 
developing self-help skills and management.  In the area of 
food security, the United States is offering to help Angola 
build its own system to replace the WFP,s Vulnerability 
Assessment system in order to identify where poor harvests 
imperil food security.  (Note:  The World Food Program is in 
the process of standing down in Angola; its crop assessments 
have pinpointed potential food deficits.  End note.)  Poor 
transportation still means that Angola can still have food 
deficits in one area and a glut in elsewhere, said Efird. 
Canga, concurring, stressed the GRA,s sovereign obligation 
to improve transportation while building grain reserves to 
meet local food deficits. 
 
Commercial Farming and AGOA 
--------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Minster Canga expressed his satisfaction that 
Angola,s agriculture is now on the road to recovery as 
refugees and displaced persons return to their rural homes. 
He agreed with Ambassador Efird that small farmers, once able 
to feed themselves, should enter market-based commercial 
farming.  Ambassador Efird noted several encouraging 
developments:  American companies have expressed interest 
both in raising crops for export and in producing packaging 
for Angola-grown food.  The October 2006 visit of USDA Deputy 
Administrator of Trade Policy Pat Sheikh from the Department 
of Agriculture had opened new possibilities for cooperation 
to be pursued during the May 2007 USDA visit during Luanda,s 
Alimenticia trade show.  U.S. firms are also participating in 
Angola,s agricultural fairs.  The U.S. Government has also 
offered to provide Angola with technical help in establishing 
a testing laboratory for food exports, Ambassador Efird 
 
LUANDA 00000311  002 OF 003 
 
 
continued, noting that this would improve Angola,s ability 
to export agricultural products to the United States under 
AGOA.  Minister Canga concurred in the need for future 
Angolan agricultural exports to meet the stringent standards 
of importing countries.  He added that Angola longs to 
rebuild the system of laboratories that made Angola a model 
for the rest of Africa before its civil war. 
 
Increasing Rural Capacity and Access 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Better roads may attract rural Angolans to the 
cities, observed Canga, but they will also bring agricultural 
products to urban markets and give trained agronomists access 
to farms where they will improve farmers, abilities.  Enough 
income growth in rural areas might even slow the pace of 
migration to the cities, he hoped.  Canga expressed gratitude 
for USAID and the Chevron-funded seed-multiplication programs 
to grow seed domestically, noting that Angola currently 
imports 80 percent of its seed.  Public works to control rain 
water and promote irrigation will also increase food security 
by permitting dry season planting, Canga noted.  He cited the 
need for additional credits for agricultural producers, along 
the lines of existing programs funded through the USAID 
&Novo Banco8 project or the Chevron-GRA funded program at 
Banco Sol. 
 
Technical Assistance to Rural Areas 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  In order to increase Angola,s technical ability 
in agriculture, the United States is supporting projects to 
combat Avian Flu, Ambassador Efird noted.  Agostinho Neto 
University has ongoing exchanges with the University of 
Michigan, she recalled, and the U.S. Government has also 
proposed university exchanges with land-grant colleges in the 
United States as a way of improving the capacity of Angola,s 
agricultural extension service.  An agricultural extension 
service giving farmers good technical advice is essential, 
Canga agreed, but requires building up an educational system 
geared to produce good technicians in the fields as well as 
outstanding scholars for the faculty. 
 
Fertilizers Ruled by the Market 
------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  Ambassador Efird said that USAID had funded a 
useful study on fertilizer production.  The Minister said 
that a government agency had monopolized fertilizer imports 
and distribution before independence and the civil war, but 
that organization no longer exists, and the Ministry of 
Agriculture now wants to let market forces decide the 
quantity and quality of fertilizers farmers buy, explained 
Canga.   Commercial agriculture demands fertilizers for 
adequate crops because Angola,s ferruginous soils are poor 
in nutrients, Canga noted, and with the future growth of 
commercial farming, Angola must import far more than its 
current 20,000 MT of fertilizer.  Ambassador Efird observed 
that importing bulk fertilizer would permit distributors to 
mix the correct fertilizer for different crops and different 
soil conditions.  Canga agreed that farmers now use 
fertilizer wastefully, another area where agricultural 
extension agents can help the farmers.  Canga continued that 
the fertilizer business is now entirely in private hands but 
needs encouragement. 
 
Rural Women 
----------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  Canga also stressed the importance of reducing the 
burden of rural women, who do most of farming work, bear 
children, raise them, cook, keep house and care for their 
husbands.  Vice Minister of Agriculture Filomena Delgado 
referred to several ongoing projects designed to improve the 
lot of rural women and noted that she would travel to the 
U.S. as part of the delegation to the U.S.-Angolan Chamber of 
Commerce meeting on May 9. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶10.  Canga made no direct appeal for food aid, nor did he 
substantiate his crop forecast.  However, he also wished to 
keep the possibility on the table.  On private control of the 
 
LUANDA 00000311  003 OF 003 
 
 
fertilizer market, Canga,s information was selective, since 
the fertilizer market is limited to a favored few importers. 
End Comment. 
 
Bio Note 
-------- 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  Afonso Pedro Canga was born in Angola,s Uige 
Province on February 10, 1959.  Before being appointed 
Minister of Agriculture in January 2007, he served as 
Director General of the Institute for Agricultural 
Development and before that as Vice Minister of Agriculture. 
Trained as an agronomist at Angola,s Agostinho Neto 
University, he has long been the principal architect of 
Angola,s agricultural policies, including its prohibition on 
the importation of viable transgenic seed.  He is married and 
has children.  Minister Canga understands English. 
EFIRD