Kinshasa, September 28th, 2021 (CPA) – The President of DRC, Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, is committed to strengthening the governance of the agricultural sector which will be focused on the supervision of family farming and the promotion of chains of diversified local agricultural values, in a video message addressed to participants in the National Forum on the Estates General of Agriculture, open on Monday at the Congo River Hotel in Kinshasa.
The two axes, he said, will be based on research as well as on innovative financing as recommended in Malabo in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP).
To get out of the food insecurity that is rife in urban and rural areas, the Head of State intends to make agriculture the spearhead of government action, speaking of the revenge of the soil on the subsoil. Ultimately, this will help revive the country’s economy and contribute to improving the social security of the Congolese populations.
It is established, according to a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report on the food situation, that 73% of the populations in the DRC are in a situation of food insecurity, food stocks Food is largely imported and poverty is increasing in rural areas.
It is with the aim of putting in place strategies which will lead to the lifting of these constraints and to establish agriculture as « key to sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction in DRC », that this National Forum is being held at the initiative of the Ministry in charge of Agriculture.
Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde Kyenge
Referring to the slogan of the President of the Republic consecrating the primacy of agriculture over other sectors, Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde Kyenge announced, the same day, the creation of a bank whose vocation will be to finance the development of the agricultural sector in the country.
The head of government indicated, on this occasion, that the organization of this national forum is an important moment in the agenda of the government which would like to create conditions for growth and diversification of the national economy, the revival of the agricultural sector being one of the pillars of the government’s program, he argued.
And to add that the diversification of the economy rests first of all on agriculture.
Sama Lukonde further clarified that the sustainable development of a nation is only possible if it is based on this primary sector.
The Prime Minister concluded his speech, invited the participants to reflect on this project to create an agricultural bank as part of the revival of agriculture.
Agricultural sector assessment
The Minister in charge of Agriculture, Desire M’zinga Birihanze, for his part, stressed that an assessment of the agricultural sector is proving to be a capital requirement to justify the holding of these meetings.
He reported that experts in the agricultural sector have identified constraints that hinder the development of Congolese agriculture.
These include the low financing of the agricultural sector; the absence of an adequate agricultural policy, the aging of family plantations, the abandonment of industrial plantations as well as the loss of confidence of private investors in export crops.
The Minister in charge of Agriculture also noted that with its 8 million hectares of arable land and its multiple agricultural potential, a large part of the population of the DRC suffers from food and nutritional insecurity.
Desire M’zinga Birihanze finally asked the participants to discuss these constraints and produce resolutions likely to force the government to honor the main issue of this meeting, which remains the weak financing of the agricultural sector.
The objective being to respect the Maputo recommendation to allocate nearly 10% of the national budget to the agricultural sector, it is recalled.
ACP/