ANGOLA* (6 June)
Harvesting of the 2005 main season crops, maize, sorghum and millets, is nearly completed. Although the cumulative rainfall since the beginning of the season in September 2004 has been close to normal the maize growing central areas of the country experienced dry spells from mid-December to mid-January followed by early tapering off of rains from the end of March. At the national level, a negative effect of this is partly compensated by increased areas under cultivation, favourable weather in the northern areas, resettlement of many internally displaced people and refugees and substantial distribution of agricultural inputs. As a result, FAO’s preliminary estimate puts the total cereal production this year at about 695 000 tonnes, or about 5 percent below last year’s production but above the five-year average. Still the country would require cereal imports of about 810 000 tonnes for 2005/06, of which 730 000 tonnes are expected to be in the form of commercial imports and 80 000 tonnes as food aid. Similar to the past years, challenges to improving food production in the country include access to productive inputs such as draught animals, fertilizer and agriculture extension services.
Angola’s economy, which produces over 1 million barrels a day of crude oil that fetched more than double the budgeted price in the international market in 2004, is expected to boom with a Government prediction of 16 percent growth in 2005. Ironically, a large number of food insecure people exist in the country. WFP with limited food distribution currently feeds about 850 000 vulnerable people, most of them internally displaced persons (IDPs). Recently the World Bank approved a grant of US$ 21 million to Angola to help implement the HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis Control Project.