Zaire AGRICULTURE
Car ferry crossing the Kasai River in
Bandundu Region
Cassava truck on a dirt road in Bandundu Region
Throughout the 1980s, nearly 65 percent of the work
force was
engaged in subsistence and commercial agriculture, and the
sector
accounted for approximately 32 percent of GDP. Because of
the
various economic distortions since independence, such as
exchange
controls, price controls, overvaluation of the currency,
and the
smuggling out of cash crops such as coffee, agriculture's
contribution to the economy was usually undervalued in
official
reports.
Zaire has the potential to be a net exporter of
agricultural
produce, but, as in other economic sectors, the country
has never
lived up to its potential. Indeed, as of the 1990s, Zaire
was not
even self-sufficient in food production. The agricultural
sector
has suffered as a result of the dislocations from
Zairianization,
an inadequate infrastructure for the transport of
agricultural
produce and an inadequate banking system, both of which
have also
affected other sectors of the economy, and inattention
from the
urban elite, resulting in few rural ventures and limited
funds for
investment.
Small-scale subsistence farmers primarily grow four
staple food
crops--rice, corn, cassava, and plantains--together on
small
scattered plots. Women generally handle food production,
transport
to market, and sale. Traditional slash-and-burn clearing
methods
are used, and the only capital inputs are hand-held tools
and seed
raised on the farms. Land clearing is labor intensive and
thus has
limited the areas under cultivation.
The average growth rate of the food supply in Zaire
fell from
4.1 percent a year in the late 1960s to 1.8 percent in the
1970s
compared with an estimated population growth rate of about
2
percent in the 1960s and approximately 3 percent in the
1970s and
1980s. Rural areas continue to provide much of the food
for urban
areas, but food imports have been increasingly important
for the
swelling urban population, with considerable illicit
traffic
crossing the borders, such as corn brought in from Zambia
and
Tanzania. By many accounts, Kinshasa subsists mainly on
imported
food: wheat, corn, flour, and canned and dried fish.
There is much disparity between official and unofficial
estimates of food imports. In 1985, for example, official
estimates
placed food imports at 157,000 tons, while unofficial
figures were
estimated at 393,000 tons. In 1986 Zaire imported 170,000
tons of
wheat and 64,000 tons of flour, up from 156,000 tons and
31,000
tons, respectively, the preceding year. The 1987 bill for
imported
wheat was estimated at US$33 million in July 1987 prices.
Wheat and
flour imports were estimated to total 220,000 tons in
1990.
Zaire's agricultural potential is greatly
underutilized. By
some estimates, as little as 1 percent of the land is
under
cultivation. Compounding the problem, government
expenditures on
the sector are inadequate, amounting to only 1 percent to
2 percent
of government outlays, most of which goes to government
administration.
Under the colonial administration, coercion was
frequently used
to keep production up. Nonetheless, extension services and
supplies
for small farmers were far superior to the
postindependence
government's ability or efforts. Agricultural buying
offices have
frequently been sources of corruption and are unable to
provide
small shareholders with adequate fuel, spare parts, buying
stations, or bonuses-in-kind, such as the salt or sugar
that were
sometimes provided by the colonial administration. The
poor
transportation network is one major obstacle to increased
production. Small farmers raise crops primarily for their
own
subsistence because of the difficulty of transporting
goods to
market. Middlemen who provide transport can reap huge
profits.
In the 1950s, many agribusiness enterprises, or
corporate
plantations, were established, especially in the Bas-Zaïre
and Kivu
regions. There was livestock raising and food processing,
and
cotton, wood, and rubber were produced and used in local
manufacturing. However, full vertical integration in such
areas as
cotton production and textile manufacturing did not
materialize.
The 1973 policy of Zairianization resulted in
agricultural
stagnation, as many enterprises were stripped of their
assets or
abandoned. In addition, price fixing, a colonial legacy
used to
hold down prices in order to restrain urban wages, led to
some
profit in the import sector but discouraged production of
food
crops. Adjustments in producer prices under the
stabilization plans
were limited; the government felt that higher food prices
would cut
incomes in the urban areas. Donors advised the government
to direct
scarce resources to maintenance of the existing road
system,
development of a delivery system for tools and seeds, and
provision
of credit. They also noted that long-term investment in
infrastructure development, technological research, and
institution
building were needed. But the Zairian government failed to
act on
this advice, and the stagnation of agriculture, which
dated back to
1959, thus continued. In 1993 some observers predicted an
impending
agricultural crisis as a result of the failure to plant
crops in
areas such as Nord-Kivu in which ethnic violence had
occurred.
Data as of December 1993
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