In the Democratic Republic of Congo the three main rural organisations, COPACO (Congo Rural Confederation (Confédération paysanne du Congo)), CONAPAC (Congo National Confederation of Agricultural Producers (Confédération nationale des producteurs agricoles du Congo)) and UNAGRICO (Congo National Union of Fishermen, Arable Farmers and Stock Farmers) (Union Nationale des Agriculteurs, Pêcheurs et Éleveurs du Congo)), all of which are represented on the National Council of the International Year of Family Farming, organised and mobilised to challenge the government plan to set up agro-industrial parks in the country. The first park of nearly 80 000 ha has already been set up in Bukanga Lonzo, about 260 km from Kinshasa. The three organisations drafted a joint declaration which they submitted to the authorities in order to alert them to the dangers of a scheme of that kind if precautions are not taken both upstream and downstream. As it is, nearly 11 000 farming families have been expelled from their land with no compensation whatsoever. Moreover, the Congolese State has provided 83 million dollars for the project, at the same time as it is planning to reduce the next budget for agriculture. The three organisations lobbied members of parliament and the Minister for Agriculture intensively against that budget reduction in a country where the proportion of the population suffering food insecurity is among the highest in the world and where investment in the agricultural sector has barely reached 3% in recent years …
These crucial issues will be raised again at the National Forum for Promoting Family Farming to be organised by the Congolese NC at the end of year; the Congolese authorities will be invited.
