Overcoming Market Constraint for Pro-poor Agricultural Growth in the Eastern DR Congo, South Kivu

Abstract

The opportunities and constraints facing the marketing of the agricultural production have been poorly documented in DR Congo. To address this lack of information, a survey of the marketing opportunities and processing constraints facing agricultural markets was conducted in 11 rural markets in South Kivu. The objectives of the study were to assess the marketing opportunities, which may increase farmers’ income, create technology demand and provide incentives for sustainable production, by investing in soil fertility improvement. The results have shown that (1) there are enormous marketing possibilities within and around the country: main national towns receive an average of 29,083 t (48.4%) of the beans produced by smallholder farmers in Kivu region and about 31,737 t (22.5%) is traded seasonally between DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda and (2) smallholders have few alternative sources of income and lack capacity to access and use these market opportunities. Most of the constraints are linked to limited market access and development, inhibiting economic and technological development, low economic activity, poor markets for agricultural input, output and finance, high transaction costs and risks and high unit costs, weak institutional and infrastructure environment, high cost and weak information access and property right. The study suggests that overcoming agricultural marketing constraints requires a strong information programme to sensitise farmers to take advantage of regional and national opportunities (potential market), a collaborative mechanism between public and private sectors, for improving access to agricultural services, including market information, instituting contractual enforcement measures and strategies for optimising the utilisation of processing capacity.