According to Zonza Puissa, director of the Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office, the planting of the aforementioned coffee seedlings is scheduled to start in the next few days in Serra da Leba and Humbia, which have been the target of deforestation for charcoal production.
The official said, cited by Angop, that the amount originating from the sale of this product will benefit local communities, aiming for their food subsistence, adding that the production of coffee in Bibala will allow "to avoid the manufacture of charcoal".
"Coffee production here in the municipality of Bibala will avoid the manufacture of charcoal and will be supervised by the municipal administration, traditional authorities and students from the Mahita Agricultural School who will help in this process until its commercialization", he said, speaking to Angop at margin of a visit by Archer Mangueira, governor of Namibe, to Bibala.
According to Zonza Puissa, while the coffee is growing, papaya seedlings will be distributed to more than five hundred families who will be placed in safer areas, so that, within half a year, they will be able to harvest this fruit to sell.
According to Angop, there are currently more than 2000 papaya trees in the municipality ready for distribution and planting.
It should be remembered that the deforestation of Serra da Leba and Humbia has worried the authorities, and last month the ministers of Agriculture and Forestry and the Environment, António de Assis and Ana Paula de Carvalho, respectively, noted the degree of deforestation in the respective local.
