[LINK] "South African Farmers Set Up in Congo"

[rfmcdonald]

Arsène Séverin's Inter Press Service story makes for interesting reading.

In the hope of strengthening its agricultural production, the Republic of Congo has handed over 80,000 hectares of arable land to a company owned and operated by 14 South African farmers.

"Our country is experiencing a food shortage and to resolve this problem, it is necessary to make land available to agricultural operators who are also investors. It’s the new policy and we’re going to continue with it," says Rigobert Maboundou, Congo’s Minister of Agriculture and Livestock.

An agreement signed on Mar. 10 in Pointe-Noire, the Congolese economic capital, the group of South African farmers and their jointly owned company, Congo Agriculture, handed over 63,000 hectares of land at Malalo II and an additional 17,000 hectares at Dihesse, in the south-west of the country. According to the agreement, the South Africans are going to set up a food processing industry in Malolo II, which should also create employment.

"Congo has been waiting for this kind of investment initiative, the creation of jobs and most importantly, an abundance of food, because these farmers are going to grow food-producing crops and farm livestock," says Pierre Mabiala, Minister of Land Reform, who handed over the title deeds.

The South Africans plan to grow rice, maize and soya. "They are also going to breed cattle, goats and pigs," says Genge Manelisi, South African ambassador in Brazzaville, the Congolese capital.

In December 2010, the government handed over 470,000 hectares of land in the Makoua and Mokeko districts in the north of the country to Atama Plantation, a Malaysian company. The Malaysians will invest 30 million dollars in rehabilitating and expanding old palm groves belonging to a state company to produce 900,000 tonnes of palm oil annually.

The government estimates that this agricultural initiative could create 20,000 jobs and contribute as much as one billion dollars to the Congo’s GDP.

The land handed over to the South Africans in Malolo II and Dihesse was occupied by smallholder farmers relying on traditional agricultural methods.

"I was shocked when the people from the government told me that I had to move off my cassava and groundnut field," says Jean Mbenze, a peasant farmer from Dihesse.

"It’s about access to information," says Christian Mounzéo, president of the Pointe-Noire-based NGO, Conference for Peace and Human Rights. "Why is this issue of dividing up the land not made public, leading to national debates that would allow people to engage with each other, rather than just deciding without consulting the affected communities?"

The displaced farmers are to be resettled in more productive districts, apparently.