Armando Valente, who is a member of the Economic and Social Council (CES), spoke to the press on the sidelines of the second meeting of the structure created by the President to participate in the preparation of programs and execution of national development tasks in the economic, business and social areas.
The adviser, who belongs to the social analysis group, said that one of the proposals to be presented to the chief executive has to do with holding a broad debate "to clearly define the model of agriculture that Angola needs".
According to the engineer, it would be "a collective work, with many sensitivities" and not the usual public consultations, but the participation of all in defining the model so that a way of doing agriculture in the country can be found.
"Our country at the moment does not have a school of tractor drivers, of agricultural machine operators, if you want to do a business now, create a farm, it will be difficult to find a good mechanic for the tractor, it will be difficult to find a good tractor driver, the response has been foreigners", said Armando Valente.
As an example, the engineer stressed that the Government is running the program to encourage grain production, Planagrão, which "requires large threshing machines, requires sowing machines, but the country does not have enough Angolan technicians to respond to the management and maintenance of these machines, which can be purchased and some are already in Angola".
"This would be part of a general debate on the model of agriculture that we need, but we, the trainers, would like more investment in agrarian schools, whether higher or medium, that are better equipped", he said.
According to the adviser, the agrarian schools, especially the higher ones, "are poorly served in terms of equipment".
"Schools don't have enough laboratory facilities or practical areas to teach students better", he stressed, while the medium level ones have the problem to be solved with a loan from the French agency.
"What is happening is that some companies bring in foreigners or others train their own, but after being trained they leave and set up their businesses, so companies are always training and people run away", he added.
