1 May 2009
Brazzaville — Congo has abundant natural resources, but attempts over the years to revitalise agriculture and improve food security and nutrition have been unsuccessful.
The country's huge agricultural potential is largely untapped: only 200,000 of its eight million arable hectares are under cultivation. Congo also boasts good precipitation as well as capital-generating oil resources.
An estimated 50 percent of the country's four million people are living below the poverty line on the equivalent of US$1 a day.
The calorie intake of 39 percent of households is lower than the minimum daily recommended level of 2,000-2,500. Twenty-six percent of children under five years of age are chronically malnourished; 33 have iron deficiency. Some 13 percent of the population have an iodine deficiency, while vitamin A deficiency is running at 47 percent, according to agencies.
Wrong-headed policies
"In the 1970s and 1980s, years of socialist-leaning single party rule, peasant organisations were set up all over the country. But they were geared more towards party propaganda than real agricultural development," explained Rigobert Belantsi, a prominent Congolese agricultural engineer.
"Then, with economic liberalisation and the state's disengagement from production in 1986, followed by the end of the state farm policy, the agricultural sector plummeted, becoming dominated by family smallholdings of cassava, yam, corn, peanut and rice cultivation," he added.
"During this period, all the state farms built at great cost and which produced so much food at reasonable prices were gradually abandoned," said Belantsi.
In the 1980s, President Denis Sassou Nguesso announced the country would be self-sufficient in food by 2000. The announcement made little difference on the ground.
Nor did schemes, launched with considerable overseas aid, such as the Special Food Security Programme, the National Food Security Programme, the Agricultural and Rural Development Programme, or protectionist fiscal measures do much to improve production.
EU project
In February 2009, Agriculture Minister Rigobert Maboundou launched the Food and Nutritional Security Project, with 39 billion CFA francs ($78 million) in funding from the European Union, the project is designed to reduce poverty and malnutrition, especially in Pool, the region most affected by conflict in Congo. The three main elements - food security, agriculture, and nutrition - will be implemented by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP), which are to receive funding over six years in line with an accord signed with the EU in December 2008.
"The food crisis is becoming clearer in the country every day and to remedy it we need to implement an intensive food-growing programme," said Emmanuel Mayoulou, head of the Fund for Agricultural Support (FSA), set up on 28 December 2008 to tackle the food deficit and agricultural price volatility.
"The first working models [of the latest project] will include planting of 500 school vegetable patches, 460ha of fish farms estimated to produce over 4,600 metric tonnes of fish a year, and the creation of 1,000ha for irrigated rice cultivation," he said.
Under-exploitation of its immense agricultural potential has made Congo a major importer of food, especially meat products, cereals, flour and starch, vegetables, oils and fats.
According to FAO, food imports are estimated at about 100 billion CFA francs (about $200 million) annually. According to the WFP, imports account for some 30 percent of overall consumption.
Deal with South Africa
In mid-April, news emerged of a ground-breaking deal with South Africa, whereby 10 million hectares of farmland would be leased to South African farmers to grow maize, soya beans and establish poultry and dairy farms.
The deal, which covers an area more than twice the size of Switzerland, could be one of the biggest such land agreements on the continent in an effort to improve food security, Reuters said, quoting Theo de Jager, deputy president of Agriculture South Africa (AgriSA).
De Jager said the agreement - to be finalised in South Africa mid-May - would operate as a 99-year lease.
Similar deals involving South Africa in Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia have helped lessor countries by improving food security and transferring skills to small-scale farmers.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
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