CHAPTER 3
INTEGRATED AGRICULTURE REHABILITATION PROJECT IN THE DRC’S MANIEMA PROVINCE
During the project’s inception, the annual rate of growth in agricultural production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was lower than its population growth, and it was insufficient to meet the population’s food needs. In this
At completion, all components were thought to have ben- efited 77,489 households. With an average household size of 7, this corresponds to about 542,423 people. 1,045.6 km of rural roads were rehabilitated for improved access to
regard, it was estimated that 95 percent of the country’s population lived under conditions of moderate to serious - and 25 percent acute - food insecurity. Food insecurity was particularly widespread in rural and forest areas. Moreover, the very poor condition of agricultur- al roads and tracks, as well as the high cost of transportation, taxes and other
markets and social services. In terms of outcomes, 92.1 percent of surveyed households stated that they had ex- perienced a reduction in the cost of transport of their agricultural prod- ucts, with a 95 percent satisfaction rate given this reduction. 94.5 percent of surveyed households confirmed that travel times had strongly decreased.
levies by local and provincial administrations added to the food bill for households, while latent disputes further dest- abilizing agricultural production. A poorly diversified diet in these areas added a nutritional dimension to food insecurity that affected the health of rural people. In 2014, the OPEC Fund approved a US$10 million loan to the DRC government co-financed by IFAD to (i) raise rural incomes by rehabilitating agricultural production (crops, livestock, fish) and by improving access to markets; and (ii) improve rural households’ access to basic social services (health, education, water supply and sanitation). The project included the following components to achieve its goals: i) Re- habilitation of infrastructure and rural feeder roads; ii) Sup- port to agriculture production recovery (crops, animals, fish); and iii) Access to basic services. The OPEC Fund supported specifically last component which mainly included the con- struction or rehabilitation of rural roads. The project’s target groups included (i) small rural producers unable to benefit from the provinces agricultural potential; (ii) small breeders who exploit some land using slash-and-burn, lacking other farming equipment; (iii) Households headed by women (in- cluding victims of sexual violence); (iv) Households headed by young people, ex-soldiers or demobilized by war; (v) mar- ginalized groups including street children, victims of social conflict, internally displaced persons, abandoned people and persons living with a handicap or HIV/AIDS.
The increase in traffic was also significant, with an average post-rehabilitation of 15 heavy trucks/day compared to 2 pre-rehabilitation. Thanks to the improved roads, a public minibus transport service between Kindu and Kasongo was established. Furthermore, transport costs were reduced to US$300/ton from US$500/ton pre-rehabilitation, and for passengers from US$50/passenger to US$15-20/pas- senger. The toll revenue generated on improved road was US$100,000 annually for provincial government. One hun- dred fifty-five permanent jobs were created for the admin- istration of the tolling system. Finally, the availability and cost of traded goods had improved due to lower transport costs and resumed trade. For example, the cost of a sack of cement had fallen to US$27 from a previous US$50, the price per liter of diesel had fallen to US$1.8 from US$3, and the price per piece of sheet metal had fallen to US$10 from US$20. Results of project components not directly financed by the OPEC Fund included the rehabilitation and construction of two health centers and four pharmaceutical storage facilities, providing 11,250 rural households with im- proved access to drinking water, establishing 308 farmer organizations, benefiting 77,489 rural households with improved seeds and seedlings, as well as improving farming practices that led to an at least 80 percent increase in rice and manioc yields.
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