Congolese parliament votes for first agriculture framework act
The Congolese parliament approved the very first framework act for the agricultural sector. New in the D.R. Congo are the introduction of an agricultural register and the establishment of a national foundation for agriculture development.
© Indra Van Gisbergen
“It is striking that farmer organizations actively participated in the political debate preceding the voting”, says Trias director Lode Delbare.
Seventy percent of the Congolese population depends on agriculture. No other sector contributes more to the gross national product. However, in Congo farming is not yet perceived as a fully-fledged job. The lack of a cohesive agriculture policy is costing the country tons of money. Yearly, 640,000 tons of food have to be imported from abroad to feed the Congolese population.
The new agriculture act, which eventually was approved by the parliament last week, has to help change the tide. Besides the register and support foundation, several agricultural advisories will be founded. Moreover, the different government levels will be obliged to budget the construction and maintenance of transport infrastructure. This is vital for the trade of agricultural products. Agricultural production methods will be exempt from import rights and the export refunds for agricultural products will be discharged.
Years of discussion preceded the framework act. Initially, the Congolese policy makers were convinced that all prosperity would come from large-scale plantations and not from the many micro-farmers. “Luckily the law acknowledges the importance of family farming for the Congolese economy”, says Delbare. “That is the merit of the several young farming organizations which went to lobby in Kinshasa.”
One of the farmer’s organizations is Repam, a partner organization of Trias, active in the west of Congo. Behind the scenes, an employee of Repam - together with other farmer organizations - played an important part in the realization of the framework act. Therefore, the act could still be approved in this legislature. Because of the presidential election, the whole procedure threatened to be delayed for another year.
Together with some other NGO’s, Trias also dedicated to the realization of the agricultural law. The development organization is a member of AgriCongo, a partnership that works on strengthening family farming in Congo. With help of befriended donors, AgriCongo collected resources for the lobby-party of farmers in Kinshasa. One of the next challenges is to permanently represent the farmer organizations in the capital city.