Improved seeds, new agricultural tools,techniques and better roads, what more can the farmers of D R Congo ask for, and this is yielding wonderful results , in the form of doubling of their harvests, four or five tonnes per hectare of the Nsansa variety of cassavaas as evidenced in the southwestern Bandundu Province.
The Agriculture Sector Support and Rehabilitation Programme, known by its French acronym PARSAR, has set up smaller associations which provides the farmers with improved quality seeds of maize, rice, groundnuts and niébé - black-eyed peas, cassava etc
The country despite possessing 34% of Land suitable for farming , a mere 10% has been used for cultivation, because of which it has long faced food insecurity.
The setting up of PARSAR by the congolese goverment has changed things.Now the yields have doubled.
The seeds have shorter life cycle, increased productivity and are also disease resistant.
'This project revolves around four components: institutional support, capacity building, support for agricultural production, and the rehabilitation of basic socioeconomic infrastructure. All this is being done thanks to the financial support of the African Development Bank amounting to nearly 30 million dollars,' explains Lambert Diango, president of PARSAR's Bandundu branch.
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