Agriculture
plays a major role in the entire Great Lakes region and in the DRC's economy,
which has 80 million hectares of arable land, a diverse climate, adapted to
agricultural diversity, and extensive areas for agriculture. In addition to
having abundant water resources for agriculture, the DRC has many lakes and
rivers that offer great opportunities for fishing and aquaculture. Agriculture
is the largest sector in terms of GDP and employment, accounting for 42.5% of
GDP and employing 70% of the labor force (62% men and 84% women). The sector
consists mainly of small family farms based on low-intensity production of
crops, livestock and fish. Staple food production remain stagnant and has
fallen behind. Some agricultural sub-sectors, including coffee, oil palm, and
cassava and maize production, are more dynamic. In addition to cassava and
maize, small and large commercial farmers grow rice, sugar cane and banana.
Congolese
agriculture is characterized by low productivity. Quality inputs and
appropriate technologies are lacking, such as improved seeds (especially
hybrids), fertilizers and other agrochemicals, vaccines and sanitary zoo
supplies. The emergence of a more productive and dynamic agricultural sector is
also limited by the lack of protection of regional watersheds (threatening the
sustainability of soil and other natural resources), weak market access, and
the lack of information on markets and prices. Poor productive infrastructure
and equipment (water, electricity, roads) and limited agri-food processing
facilities add to the high costs of production, processing and transaction, in
addition to the high post-harvest losses for crop, livestock and fish
production. Removing these constraints that limit the performance of the sector
should strengthen the contribution of agriculture to food security, employment,
household nutrition, and poverty reduction.
Agriculture
is therefore a critical economic and employment activity in the Democratic
Republic of Congo
With funding
from the World Bank, UNOPS CDOH is implementing on behalf of the Government of
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC- Ministry of Agriculture) the
infrastructure of subcomponent of the project whose objectives is to increase
agricultural productivity and marketing in targeted areas in eastern DRC,
improve regional integration in the agriculture sector and thereby improve and
strengthen the overall agricultural value chains. The project comprises of:
a)
Rehabilitation of 540 kilometers of agricultural
feeder roads linking production areas and
markets;
b)
The rehabilitation of existing irrigation systems
in the Ruzizi Valley River in the Ruzizi and
Rugumba plains and other lowlands and valleys, and;
c)
Rehabilitation of micro hydroelectric power plants
(small dams) and access to water
(construction /
rehabilitation of boreholes).
UNOPS will
work in close collaboration with the rural infrastructure engineers of the
provincial delivery units, the Directorate of Agricultural Servicing (DVDA),
the National Rural Hydraulic Service (SNHR). The Ministry of Rural Development
in charge of road and water supply programs as well as the Office of Roads
(OdR) for long-span bridges on these roads.
The rural
roads program will take a regional dimension of the proposed project into
consideration and improve connectivity between DRC and Burundi. It will also
establish community program focused on road maintenance mechanism and develop
institutional capacity of the Directorate of Agricultural Servicing (DVDA),
water user associations will also receive training on irrigation project
management.