Agriculture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Animal husbandry in Congo

Agriculture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an industry in the country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo that has plenty of potential.

Overview

The agricultural sector supports two-thirds of the population. Agricultural production has stagnated since independence. The principal crops are

plantains, rice, and maize. The country is not drought-prone [citation needed
] but is handicapped by a poor internal transportation system, which impedes the development of an effective national urban food-supply system.

Production

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has the sixth highest proportion of women working in agriculture, forestry and fishing in the world.

The Democratic Republic of Congo produced, in 2018:

  • 29.9 million tons of cassava (3rd largest producer in the world, second only to Nigeria and Thailand);
  • 4.7 million tons of plantain (largest producer in the world);
  • 2 million tons of maize;
  • 1.1 million tons of palm oil;
  • 990 thousand tons of rice;
  • 384 thousand tons of sweet potato;
  • 309 thousand tons of banana;
  • 307 thousand tons of peanut;
  • 213 thousand tons of mango (including mangosteen and guava);
  • 213 thousand tons of papaya;
  • 205 thousand tons of
    beans
    ;
  • 186 thousand tons of pineapple;
  • 168 thousand tons of orange;
  • 101 thousand tons of potato;

In addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products, such as coffee (29 thousand tons), cocoa (3.6 thousand tons), natural rubber (14 thousand tons) and tea (3.6 thousand tons). [1]

Crops

Harvesting pineapple in the Kasaï region
Congolese farmer.

Land under annual or perennial crops constitutes only 3.5 percent of the total land area. Agriculture is divided into two basic sectors: subsistence, which employs the vast majority of the work force, and commercial, which is export-oriented and conducted on plantations. Subsistence farming involves four million families on plots averaging 1.6 hectares (four acres), usually a little larger in savanna areas than in the rain forest.[2]

Subsistence farmers produce mainly

pineapples, 193,000 tons.[2]
Domestic food production is insufficient to meet the country's needs, and many basic food products have to be imported.

Exports

The production of

rubber, palm oil, cocoa, tea
) was mostly back in private hands. Commercial farmers number some 300,000, with holdings between 12 and 250 hectares (30 and 618 acres).

Coffee

Coffee is the DRC's third most important export (after

Equateur, and Kivu
.

10–15 percent of production is being

robusta; coffee exports are mostly sold to Italy, France, Belgium, and Switzerland. The collapse of the International Coffee Agreement
in 1989 quickly led to a doubling of exports by the former Zaire, whereupon the surplus entering the world market drove down prices rapidly.

Rubber

Rubber is the fourth most important export cash crop. The plantation crop has been slowly recovering from nationalization. Some plantations are now[when?] replanting for the first time in over 20 years./.

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Agriculture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  1. ^ Democratic Republic of the Congo production in 2018, by FAO
  2. ^ a b "Faostat". Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2013-03-21.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agriculture_in_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo&oldid=1212355306"