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The paradox between the agricultural potentials and the current food security crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- 언어ENG
- URLhttps://db.koreascholar.com/Article/Detail/416755
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) is a central African country, abundant with large and various agro-ecological landscapes suitable for the cultivation of various crops, water resources, and a young manpower. However, the country is facing a severe food crisis, exposing around 27 million people, among which 4 million undernourished children to famine according to the World Food Program. To better understand the paradox of the country with huge agricultural potential being one of the countries with the largest number of people in food distress in 2022, we reviewed the DR Congo's current agricultural potentials and challenges, and it was observed that the country's low agricultural productivity is mainly due to low governmental human and technological investment in agricultural research, which is characterized by insufficient training of researchers, limited research budget, and lack of updated technologies. Also, the country's immensity and poor transport infrastructures make the movement and commercialization of crops difficult in the country. Based on the data reviewed, the Korea-Africa Food & Agriculture Cooperation Initiative, an organization in which the DR Congo is a member country, proposes a reform of the country's agricultural policies 1) to set a proper vision for the country's Agricultural research and productivity, 2) to design a proper structure assigning the roles of every organization involved in agriculture at the national or provincial level, 3) to improve the government investment in young researchers' capacity building and motivation, 4) to define how cooperation with international organizations could contribute to the enhancement of the country's agricultural development.
