The unfulfilled agricultural potential of Africa's giant

Agriculture is the cornerstone of the Congolese economy and ‘employs’ three quarters of the working population. As the World Bank (WB) report phrases it: “Of all sources of growth, the agricultural sector has the greatest potential for poverty reduction.”

With ample amount of sunshine and rainfall, why are the markets often so empty, only offering cassava, maize, rice, plantains and beans – literally!?!

Cassava (Manioc) is the country's major food crop and is grown in all parts of the DRC – often claimed as their national dish, but actually quiet new. They make Fufu balls, chikwon (like a stick of bread made out of a thick glue) and ponde (a bitter tasting big leaf sort of spinach) out of it. Just like the Europeans took to the South-American potato, corn and cassava/manioc spread with the Portuguese arrival.  By the end of the 15th century the Mexican corn and the Brazilian cassava started their conquest of Congolese cuisine. The cooking banana/plantain had arrived already 1,000 years earlier. At the time yams, sorghum and palm oil were already cultivated. Dogs were kept for protection; even chickens and goats were around. Termites, snails, larvae, caterpillar and wild honey were collected – all around the year 500 A.C. Things weren't so bad before the white skins arrived.

Leopold further entrenched manioc as a national food item, as people were forced to cultivate and eat this easy to grow crop, to have enough energy and time to give to the king - for free, of course. With the Belgians taking over Leopold’s colony, they ‘industrialized’ the country (from 1908-1921), starting plantation for coffee, cacao, tobacco, and palm oil. William Lever from Liverpool was specifically interested in the palm oil, for his production of soap. A bit later (around 1930) cotton plantations were also established and would make the DRC the leading African producer of cotton by 1960, the year of independence.

Today cotton production has virtually disappeared.

Agricultural productivity in general has continuously fallen for the last half a century, with the drop in industrial crops (coffee, cocoa, tea, rubber, oil palms, and cotton) being spectacular.  At the time of independence, Congo was the second largest exporter of palm oil in the world, after Malaysia but before Indonesia. Today, it imports over 50,000 tones of palm oil.

Exports of palm oil have stopped in 1985, bananas and groundnut oil stopped already in 1970, and cotton in 1977.

The collapse of commercial agriculture can be contributed to Mobutu’s "Zairianization," (1973), while the continuing war in the east of the country has been destroying hopes to rebuild the sector over the last decades. In the 1990s agriculture was still up to 50% of the national revenue, but only because of the collapse of other economic sectors (mining in particular).

As mentioned, agriculture has the highest potential to reduce poverty, also because it is labour-intensive. The growing organic market should also be kept in mind when thinking about the potential of export to northern markets. After all the soils here have been largely untouched by toxic fertilizers and pesticides so heavily used in the North since WWII.

Secondly, agricultural income tends to be spent on locally produced goods and services. Lastly, growth in agricultural output lowers the price of foodstuffs thereby making "invisible transfers“ to the population as a whole.

The DRC has 80 million ha of arable land, of which only 9 % of which is currently farmed. The wide diversity of agro-climatic conditions, the abundant and regular rainfall, as well as the presence of large volumes of surface water would allow highly diversified production. The Congo basin provides a favourable climate for growing oil palms, rubber, coffee, cocoa, bananas and cassava, while the savannah is better for cotton, cereals, pulses and stock rearing.  The mountainous areas, on the other hand, where the climate is relatively temperate, are suitable for coffee, tea, potatoes, and livestock rearing. The vast areas available for pasture could allow over 40 million head of cattle to be raised, whereas now the national herd is only around 700,000.

Despite all this potential food production has been inadequate to meet the needs of even the growing population, causing increased food insecurity throughout the country, and particularly in urban areas even though imports of rice, corn and palm oil have considerably increased.

Issues of the Congolese agriculture sector include, but are not limited to: Constraints on access to credit, impossibility of producing on a large scale, the absence of improved varieties and inputs, inappropriate cultivation techniques, a high rate of disease and pests, extremely high post -harvest losses, as well as lack of agricultural machinery. A sharp rise in transport costs because of infrastructure deterioration and systematic racketeering from  official services and armed groups is further worsening the situation.

At the time of independence, the Congo's transport network consisted of a multimodal network of 152,000 km of highways and rural roads, 16,200 km of water routes and 5,000 km of railway tracks. Following decades of neglect, a large part of this network is no longer operational.

Beyond the obvious other issue of land rights, we also face a paradoxical labor constraints within the DRC, as most large agricultural exploitations indicate problems not only in mobilizing skilled personnel (agricultural technicians, mechanics, heavy equipment operators), but also unskilled and inactive labour. Skilled technicians are extremely rare and large agricultural enterprises often have to train their personnel themselves. This not only involves noteworthy additional costs but the enterprise also runs the non-negligible risk of seeing its personnel go off to seek alternative employment elsewhere, once they have been trained.  Furthermore, labour productivity is generally very low and affected by a high rate of absenteeism, up to 20 %.

With this plethora of issues the WB predicts "the need for substantial foreign investment" to revived the agricultural sector. But I believe that this is exactly what is wrong with development, and aid in the DRC in particular these days.  The reliance, yes the addiction to foreign support. In the richest country in the world, the government should be forced to use more money for the public than private spending. Reybrouch (in "Congo a history", currently not available in english) underlines that the 2005 budget for the leader of the country was 8 times higher than the health budget, and 6 times higher than the agricultural budget. When Kabila Senior passed away (was assassinated) the first thing the parliament did was not to work on the constitution, re-organize the army, or ensure the right for people to vote, NO, the first thing was to increase their pay from $600 (mind you a Professor gets $30 per month) to $1,200, and senators even to $1,500 (in 2007 to $4500 and to $6000/month in 2008), and in 2005 they old gave themselves a SUV worth $22,000, because the streets in Kinshasa were so bad (never mind spending this money on fixing the streets). All while 80% of their fellow citizens live with less than $1.25 a day.

Yet there is hope. Cocoa bares huge potential (not just because I love chocolate). Cocoa cultivation has never developed in the DRC despite excellent agricultural and climatic conditions. It doesn’t even require intensive labour or complex growing methods. At the time of independence, 5,200 tons were produced by agri-businesses in the Equateur and Bas Congo provinces. Unilever used to produce 45% of the total production and 5 other big plantations produced 40%.  Currently yields are very low (200kg/ha versus 450 kg/ha in Cote d’Ivoire and more than a ton in Vietnam). Growers often sell beans that are inadequately fermented, dried and often immature. Lot’s of room for improvement.

The WB writes: “Development prospects for cocoa production in the DRC seem very positive. Medium term growth of global consumption is projected at 3% with new markets .... Production in Cote d’Ivoire, the leading producer in the world has been hampered by the crisis facing the country. Among others, the bank advices for a partnership within the “International Cocoa Initiative” and the “World Cocoa Foundation” (that big companies like Mars have supported) which have committed themselves to buying, starting 2020, only international cocoa whose production meets the social and environmental standards required by markets in the North.... And I could get some chocolate :)

First and foremost the country needs a committed government to invest in this vital and important sector. In fact, under Kabilas's leadership, they have declared agriculture to be a “priority of priorities” and vowed 10% for national budget towards the sector since 2002. Unfortunately, the Government has been unable to follow through on their promise with agricultural spending not surpassed 2.5% of the government’s total budget since.

It should be noted that project-based financing from international development partners supplement the very modest national budget allocations. In recent years international funding has often exceeded funding from the central Government, probably also having a more significant impact on the agriculture sector than national resources "due to sharper targeting, better partnership with provincial and local institutions, and more efficient and transparent use" (WB)

Clearly, public expenditure on agriculture must increase, especially in face of the dramatic positive role it can have on poverty reduction. Yet again, I wonder what would happen if all international aid agencies would pull out and let the Congolese figure it out themselves. The continued crutch that has been provided has seemingly fostered a begging-bowl-budgeting approach, holding the giant in the heart of Africa further back. For now, I have to rely on my own grading skills to have a larger variety. But for the 65 million others out there, I dearly hope for a renewed, and more benevolent, investment that has the potential to allow the majority of this country to lead a more decent and hopeful life.

Sources: World Bank Report  - DRC Diagnostic Trade Integration Study , July 2010

Kongo - eine Geschichte by David Van Reybrouck