The project for the development of agricultural chains underway in the province attributes impressive production volumes to bananas, when compared to other regions of the country.
The municipality of Cacongo, with an area of 1,763 square kilometers and an estimated population of 39,076 inhabitants, is the largest banana producer in the province with an estimated production of over 200 tons per week, (with an export rate of 80 Percent). The municipality of Cabinda follows with an average production of 18 tons per hectare, while Buco-Zau and Belize represent 20 percent of the overall production of the province of Cabinda.
“These are averages that at the national level already compete with the largest provinces that produce bananas”, said the municipal administrator of Cabinda, Agostinho da Silva. Excited by the demand for bananas and the gains obtained, producers are increasingly betting on the expansion of cultivation areas, allowing an increase in production capacity and attracting a greater volume of income, and improving the diet of the population.
“The promotion of banana production also opens a window of opportunities for access to employment and stimulates the presence of the product on the market”, said Agostinho da Silva. He added that “the population of Cabinda already understands that the key to improving the quality of life is the exercise of agricultural activity and we, as a Government, have to adequately support and assist those families who are identifying agriculture as the source main of its resources.
The head of the department of the provincial secretariat of Agriculture and Fisheries in Cabinda, Fernando Paca, said that the practice of banana cultivation in Cabinda continues to obey the traditional method, differing only in the way of preparing the land. “We must work on the modernization of banana production and avoid the traditional practices inherited from our ancestors”, defended the agronomist Fernando Paca, warning that “if we insist on the traditional system we will create an environmental problem, because year after year we are devastating the forests for banana production.
The first cultivation system, he explained, consists of clearing the forest, cutting it down, burning it and the consequent installation of the banana crop. “This first system is used more for the cultivation of banana bread, whose duration of the banana plantation rarely exceeds five years of useful life.” The second system, he added, is called conservation agriculture, observing only the deforestation phase and then proceeding directly to the installation of the banana plantation, thus exempting the burning phase.
30 thousand families involved
The banana production capacity in Cabinda is estimated at 225 thousand tons per year, involving around 30 thousand families. In the first half of this year, around 82 thousand tons have already been produced, while in 2022 195 thousand 277.29 tons were produced with the participation of 25 thousand families.
A tiny part of the banana produced in Cabinda is destined for domestic consumption, while the largest portion is exported to neighboring countries due to the lack of a processing industry and reduced local consumption. The increase in banana production capacity comes at a time when the Executive is betting on the project to install product transformation units in the municipality of Cacongo.
For the producers, hope now resides in the implementation of the project in the Agriculture sector regarding the value chain system that consists of the implementation of infrastructures for processing bananas. “If this project materializes, it will be an added value, as the national producer will sell the banana at the real market price instead of the foreigner dictating the rules in the commercialization process.”
