AGRICULTURE

I. Potentialities and assets

The DRC offers several investment opportunities in the agricultural sector from production to marketing, to create a chain of competitive value at the sub-region.

With its outstanding agronomic potential and an area of unparalleled farmland in Africa, the DRC is able to feed 2 billion people.

1.1. Climate and Rainfall

a) Climate

- Average annual temperature :

• 25 ° C at the coast
• 24-25 ° C in Northern DRC ....
• 10 ° C in mountaineous eastern provinces.
• 20 ° C on the high plateaus of Katanga.
• Seasonal diurnal amplitude :
  • 9 ° and 11 ° C in the provinces with lower latitudes
  • 16 ° C in the extreme Northeast
  • 18 ° to 19 ° C in southern Katanga.

b) Pluviometry

- 1000 mm / year

1.2. vegetation

The DRC has several types of vegetation including forest, savannahs, steppes, marshy grassy Groups, etc.

1.3. Soil

The DRC has 80 million hectares of arable land and irrigable land of four million. These include : Ferrasols, sandy clay soils with clay tasks, sandy soils, recent volcanic soils, alluvial plain soils, ancient rocks soil, Areno-ferrals, Hydro-kaolisols, ferrisols, etc.

II. Various agricultural crops in the DRC

With 80 million hectares of arable land, the DRC is developing several cultures, namely : food crops, market gardening and perennial crops.

2.1. Food crops

Cassava, Maize, Rice, Peanut, Banana Plantains, Potatoes, Yams, Wheat, Sorghum, Bean, Soybean, Cowpea, Taro, Sweet Potato, etc.

2.2. Vegetable crops

Onion, tomato, vegetables, etc ...

2.3. Perennial crops or annuities

Fibers, hevea, Millet, Oil palm, Cinchona, Cocoa, Tobacco, Cotton, Pyrethrum, Tea, Sugar cane, Papain, Sesame, Urena, Bambara groundnut, jatropha, etc ...

2.4. Priority sectors

As part of the revival of the agricultural industry in the DRC, several sectors were selected based on several factors such as the state of existing resources, old and new traditions, the degree of organization of producers, presence or lack of development projects, the state of infrastructure, land availability, regulations and the business environment.

a) The industrialized industries : coffee, cocoa, tea, cinchona, hevea, sugar, palm oil (vegetable sectors) ; cattle, swine, poultry (animal sectors) ;

b) sectors with strong potential for industrial development : maize, cassava, rice, soybeans ;

c) courses of socio-economic importance to local communities : fishing, fish farming (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, developing the strategy to revive the agribusiness in the DRC, A2 report on the development of strategy drafts by province, Kinshasa, p15)

III. Legal framework

Investment Code (cfr. Act No. 004/2002 of 21/02/2002).

The new investment code has the following objectives :

a) Promote the establishment of civil engineering companies responsible for construction and maintenance of roads and highways as well as movements of people and goods, whether land transportation, river or air ;

b) Promote investments that develop agriculture and agribusiness through mechanization in order to ensure food self-sufficiency and therefore reduce imports of commodities and allow both income growth in rural areas, improving the supply of food industries with raw materials and finally, enlargement of the domestic market of consumer goods ;

c) Promote the heavy investments to establish a strong industrial base which will support sustainable economic growth ;

d) Encourage investment for developing the national natural resources on site in order to increase the added value and the exportable volume. Decree 13/049 of 10.6.2014 relating to the tax regime to be applied to companies eligible for the Strategic Partnership on the chain of value.

The above mentioned Decree aims to establish a tax system of development as part of the legal framework for economic promotion and revival of the national industrial units likely to improve the living conditions of the national communities.

This is an instrument of economic promotion that will assist the Government and the private sector to direct, organize and carry out investments of partnership programs in the areas and sectors that have significant potential for integration of which the realization allows a large segment of the population to take part in the economic and social activity on well-defined geographical areas.

Agricultural Code (Law No. 11/022 of 24 December 2011 on fundamental principles relating to agriculture).s The agricultural Code aims to :

a) promote the sustainable development of potentialities and agricultural space integrating social and environmental aspects ;

b) boost agricultural production by establishing a special customs and tax regime in order to achieve, inter alia, food self-sufficiency ;

c) boost exports of agricultural products to generate significant resources for investment ;

d) promote the local industry for processing agricultural products ;

e) bring new renewable energy technologies ;

f) get the province, the decentralized territorial entity and the farmer involved in the promotion and implementation of agricultural development.

IV. Achievement

The agricultural sector of the DRC has contributed for 40% of GDP in 2013.

It should be noted that in 2012, the DRC has produced thousands of tons of cassava, Corn, Rice Paddy, Bean and Pea respectively 15,080 ; 1,157 ; 318 ; 125. As for agro-industrial production, the DRC has produced 26,144 tons of robusta coffee, 5,636 tons of arabica coffee, 5353 tons of cocoa, 3,508 tons of tea, 3485 tons of tobacco, 8,487 tons of oilseeds, 2,790 tons of Cinchona, 1,996,565 tons of cane sugar, etc.

From 2009 to 2013, ANAPI approved 46 investment projects in the agriculture and forestry sector.

The development of 5,000 ha of maize in Agro-industrial Park of BUKANGA - LONZO bore fruit on March 5, 2015, for the growing season A.

Below are the details on the various projects to be undertaken in the agro-industrial park of BUKANGA-LONZO.

V. Future Prospect

The Government’s program in agricultural development aims to :

• Enhance the contribution of agriculture to economic growth ;
• Restore the country’s food security ;
• Reduce poverty and insecurity in rural areas ;
• Increase production of food and sustainable products ;
• Encourage mport-substitution.

To achieve these objectives, the program meets the agricultural and rural strategies and policies that affect :

• awareness of the population ;
• the production ;
• removal ;
• storage ;
• the transformation ;
• marketing of agricultural products.

For this purpose, the Government adopted in May 2013, the National Agricultural Investment Plan (PNIA 2013-2020).

That plan is the national planning framework for national and external funds in the agricultural and rural sector. Its overall objective is to stimulate sustainable growth in the agricultural sector over 6%, to ensure food and nutrition security of the Congolese people, to sustainably generate jobs and income (Presentation of HE Mr. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Economic Days DRC RFA, 24-26 September 2014). Four methods are planned :

PNIA focuses on around five programs, namely : the development of agricultural and agro-industrial zones ; product management and of food security ; research, development and training ; governance and building the human and institutional capacity of the sector ; adaptation to climate change.

The cornerstone of the PNIA is the progressive development of about twenty agro-industrial parks over tens of thousands of hectares throughout the country.

The pilot agro-industrial park of BUKANGA LONZO in Bandundu Province, was inaugurated by the President of the Republic, Head of State, on 15 July, 2014. This park has a production potential with a very high added value : high-yielding arable land, water availability, and irrigation easiness, proximity to Kinshasa province that is a market and a trade opportunity of more than 10 million consumers.

SOPAGRI, a mixed company established as a public-private partnership, is in charge of its management.

To allow evacuation of foodstuffs, the Government launched a national road reunification program to link the City of Banana in Bas-Congo to Sakania in Katanga on a distance of 3,300 km.