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A time for healing and growing

Article - September 29, 2011
Aldeia Nova is a visionary project with a twofold mission: to afford displaced Angolans jobs, and to boost the country’s agricultural backbone
PAN IS HELPING FORMER SOLDIERS AND DISPLACED FAMILIES GET BACK ON THEIR FEET
The 27 years of civil war in Angola that ended with a ceasefire in 2002 left the nation divided and crippled. Thousands of families were left homeless, infrastructure was destroyed, and the countryside that had served as the breadbasket of southern Africa was littered with landmines. In a mass exodus, farmers abandoned their dangerous lands in search of opportunities in the cities, causing overpopulation in urban areas. 

In 2004, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos launched Projectos Aldeia Nova (PAN), a pilot project to combat over-urbanization while rebuilding Angola’s former economic strength: agriculture. 

Portuguese for “new village,” PAN kicked off in Cela District, part of the Wako Kungo municipality of Kwanza-Sul Province. Some 800 families—from both warring parties, the Armed Forces of Angola and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola— were welcomed to newly constructed settlements in under-populated rural areas where they were given shelter and jobs, and reintegrated into a new, peaceful social environment.

Jose Cerqueira, project director at PAN, says, “It is necessary to create the conditions so that there are small towns in fertile regions, so that people can work in agriculture and have the benefits of the city.” 

Little by little, the project recovered agricultural fields and built infrastructure, including schools and health centers. PAN, which was handed over to the Angolan government in February 2008, spurred the development of small enterprises and modern agricultural factories, while complementary facilities, such as banks and hotels, began springing up in the area. Such is PAN’s success that there are plans to export the model to other provinces, specifically Lunda Norte and Malanje.

Currently, PAN’s products, which come from the Social Agriculture Project Aldeia Nova, consist of sugar, grains, eggs, milk and milk products, and cow, chicken and pork meat, among others. However, Aldeia Nova’s biggest bets are on their sugarcane plantation project called ProCana. “I think the product that could make a major contribution to the revival of Angolan agriculture will be cane sugar to produce sugar, ethanol and electricity,” explains Cerqueira. “Because it is a quick culture, you plant it today and after a year it can be harvested and create some income. There is a big market in the world for ethanol.”

After PAN brought in experts from the U.K., Brazil, and Portugal to conduct a study on the Angolan sugar industry, the project took off with a 1,000-hectare sugarcane nursery in Waco that includes varieties imported from Uganda and Brazil.
In recent news, PAN signed a contract for Quiminha, in the Catete District just 43 miles from Luanda. Under the Regional and Agricultural Development Project of Quiminha signed in January 2010, PAN will produce eggs, poultry, grains and tomatoes to supply the capital city.

The next step for PAN is to find international investors who want to participate in the development of new agricultural products, as well as in the transformation of the PAN experience into a larger segment of the agro-industrial sector that would create more employment opportunities and raise self-sufficiency for food. For this, PAN seeks not only financial investment but also the machinery, technology, and know-how to further promote development in the villages.

It is projects such as Aldeia Nova that are helping Angolans get back on their feet, providing them with the tools they need for their personal well-being and growth, and for the socioeconomic development of the nation.

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