2023-10-30 23:00:55
Congo still depends largely on food imports to feed its 5 million inhabitants. They are estimated at 700 billion CFA francs (1.060 billion euros) per year. Its ambition to achieve food self-sufficiency in the early 2000s has still not been achieved due, in particular, to a lack of lasting funding.
From our correspondent in Brazzaville,
About a hundred kilometers north of Brazzaville, the New Agricultural Village of Nkouo is almost abandoned. This project launched in 2010 originally brought together more than 700 farmers, mainly specialized in egg production… but there are only around forty today.
Stendhal Koussala describes his experience with bitterness: “ We have been on the site for 13 years. But today we have been abandoned for 8 years. Here, it is mediocre and negligible production intended just for the maintenance of the village. Otherwise the village no longer produces [comme l’État l’avait voulu, NDLR]. And for maintenance, there is more or less negligible production there. Question of maintaining the image of a village producing table eggs. »
PDAC support
Despite the efforts of the Congolese government to try to achieve food self-sufficiency by developing its 10 million hectares of arable land, many projects have been abandoned over the years, particularly due to the fall in the price of oil. . The new agricultural village of Nkouo owes its survival to PDAC, the Commercial Agriculture Development Project, financed by the World Bank
Bienvenu Mandilou is also a farmer in Nkouo. “ We were among the people who set the price [de l’œuf] on the market. But, since the breakup, we are no longer visible on the market. What I can ask [aux autorités] is to revive this village “, he says.
«Self-sufficiency will be within our reach »
The village’s production is estimated today at 96,000 eggs per month, compared to more than 666,000 per month before the crisis. Agriculture is a key sector in trying to revive the economy and diversify Congo’s exports, still largely dominated by oil. Technician following day by day how Brazzaville implements its agricultural policies, Justin Alain N’sangou of the Congolese Observatory of Consumer Rights underlines that decision-makers have made mistakes and gives some advice:
«It is enough to perpetuate the good quality seed; that we operationalize the Agricultural Research Institute towards production and not towards theories. Let us strengthen the capacities of geniuses in the agricultural sector so that they can support producers. Let us mechanize the farmer and make his financing simple. Certainly, self-sufficiency will be within our reach», he analyzes.
In Nkouo, we also practice small-scale market gardening. And, for the relaunch of activities, the authorities are hoping for a promise of Kuwaiti funds, the amount of which has not been revealed.
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