Kabila endorses the agriculture framework
Some weeks ago President Joseph Kabila endorsed the first Congolese framework for agriculture. The family farmers react with relief, but a lot of work still needs to be done.
Kabila makes it much harder for foreigners to monopolize farmland in Congo.
In Congo 7 out of 10 people are dependent on agriculture for their survival. Still, this primary sector has been heavily neglected by the government during the latest decades. This is the reason why Congo today is largely dependent on the import of food products.
To turn the tide, small farmer organizations join forces. Last year, they sent a lobbying cell to the capital Kinshasa to safeguard the interests of family farming in the first framework for agriculture. This was approved by the parliament in May 2010.
A few weeks later Kabila decided to send the law back to the MPs. The president insisted on sterner criteria for the purchase of farmland by foreign investors. Thus it became impossible to ratify the framework before the presidential elections of the end of November.
But on the 24th of December, Kabila has finally signed this act. New items are, amongst others, the entering of a farm register en the establishment of a national fund for agricultural development. The law will become effective on the 24th of June 2012.
To bring the statutory provisions into the field, a lot of work still needs to be done. First a commission will have to look into the layout of each of the decisions. Later, the rural population of this huge country will have to be informed about their new rights and obligations.
In the west of Congo, Trias supports the agricultural federation Repam. Repam was actively involved in realizing the framework. "Personally the establishment of regional advisory boards is the most important element in this new law. It assures that the Congolese farmers will be much more involved in the political decisions in the future", states Donatien Malonda of Repam.