Benguela province plans to expand its network of agricultural field schools to 1,000 units as part of a strategy to strengthen technical support and modernise farming practices across the region.
Leilande da Costa, director of Benguela’s Provincial Office for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, told ANGOP on Thursday that approximately 700 field schools are currently operating across the province’s 23 municipalities, and that the target is to raise that number significantly.
According to da Costa, the initiative is built around the principle of ‘learning by doing’, bringing together groups of farmers accompanied by agricultural technicians with the aim of increasing productivity and improving the quality of output.
Training takes place primarily in the field, where farmers learn through observation and hands-on practice. Subjects covered include land preparation, sowing techniques, fertiliser application and other methods designed to raise yields.
Da Costa noted that the field schools also allow producers to compare traditional community practices with techniques recommended for each specific production zone, encouraging the exchange of experience between farmers.
The official highlighted the case of a 67-year-old farmer encountered during a visit to one of the field schools, who had adopted new cultivation techniques — challenging the assumption that older farmers would be resistant to change.
‘She not only took part in the learning process but also presented the team with an explanation of how the school works and described the practices she had been applying,’ da Costa said.
He said the case demonstrated that technical support can effectively facilitate the adoption of new knowledge even among farmers who have applied the same methods for decades.
Da Costa stressed that the expansion of the field schools is directly linked to the province’s broader agricultural productivity strategy, arguing that increasing the cultivated area alone does not guarantee higher output.
He therefore underlined the need to improve yields per hectare through the appropriate use of quality seeds, fertilisers, water availability and the correct application of agricultural techniques.
With the expansion to 1,000 units, he added, the sector aims to bring technicians closer to producers and ensure that knowledge reaches rural communities directly, rather than remaining confined to training centres.
The initiative forms part of the strategy to modernise family farming and to prepare for the 2026/27 crop season, for which Benguela has set a target of one million tonnes of agricultural output — recovering the production levels recorded in the 2024/25 campaign.
Source: ANGOP / Original article: https://www.angop.ao/noticias/agricultura/benguela-pretende-criar-mil-escolas-de-campo-para-modernizar-praticas-agricolas/
