Kinshasa, October 7th, 2026 (CPA).- A workshop to plan activities for the fourth year of the project entitled “Development of the Cassava Value Chain to Support Food Security and the Bread Industry in the DRC (CVCD)” opened Wednesday in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for a two-day period, bringing together stakeholders.
“Over these two days, the partners involved in the implementation will take stock of the three years already completed under this project and plan the activities for the final year. More importantly, we will think in the long term about how to transform the activities of this final year in order to develop a long-term, sustainable program capable of transforming the cassava sector and restoring the DRC’s leading position in production, but above all in cassava processing,” said Dr Komi Kouma, IITA Country Representative in the DRC.
Dr Kouma said that the priority for this final year should be based on a long-term vision. In his view, this involves engaging all partners in the project, particularly financial partners, in order to ensure its sustainability over time.
“The particularity of the CVCD is the combination of the seed sector and product processing. On the one hand, the seed sector makes it possible to improve yields, ensure the availability of planting material and increase the productivity needed at the national level. On the other hand, it involves developing the technologies needed to process cassava into quality and dry products,” he added.
“It is also about ensuring that cassava is not a crop relegated to last place, but rather a crop that enables both farmers and processors to become prosperous solely through cassava,” the IITA Country Representative in the DRC further noted.
The CVCD project activity planning workshop provides a platform for stakeholders across the cassava value chain, including sector players, government agencies and development partners, to share the project’s achievements and define strategies for effective implementation of activities during the final year (2027-2028).
The 2026-2027 financial year is important for the workshop organizers, as it is the final year of the project. The meeting aims to identify strategies to sustain the major progress achieved in the cassava subsector and draw up the activity plan for the project’s final year.
The workshop, being held from October 7th to 8th, brings together delegates from the National Institute for Agricultural Study and Research (INERA), the Ministry in charge of Industry and universities, who are actively participating in the meeting.
Launched in November 2023, the project is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the United States Government, and implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). ACP/