00:00 With a territory four times the size of France, agricultural production potential capable
00:16 of feeding a quarter of the world's population, climatic diversity, fresh water reserves and
00:22 hydroelectric potential, it's clear that the Democratic Republic of the Congo has major
00:27 assets.
00:28 But these assets pale into insignificance in the face of food insecurity.
00:33 It affects 27 million people and every year the country spends billions of dollars on
00:38 food imports.
00:40 So how can all this be resolved?
00:42 That was the question being discussed at the Agribusiness Forum here in Kanshasa.
00:48 Agricultural growth is imperative.
00:50 It's more effective in reducing poverty than growth in other sectors.
00:54 This forum has therefore created an ecosystem around agriculture, including finance, industry,
00:59 energy and infrastructure.
01:01 The aim is to increase the number of initiatives to promote growth in the sector.
01:05 The stakes are economic, social and environmental.
01:09 We no longer have time to talk about potential.
01:12 We urgently need to act.
01:14 Meeting the challenge of agriculture rests on three pillars.
01:17 The first is infrastructure.
01:19 The second is governance and the business environment.
01:22 The third is the question of entrepreneurial culture of local people first and then attracting
01:27 foreigners.
01:31 We need to do this because we have been relying for too long and too heavily on the mining
01:36 sector which will not last forever.
01:39 As far as agriculture is concerned, our prospects are eternal.
01:43 So now, more than ever, is the time to take advantage of this strong situation in the
01:47 mining sector to build something else, to diversify our economy by relying on our most
01:53 reliable, most sustainable asset, which is agriculture and agro-industry.
01:58 The government has launched a programme of reforms to promote the development of private
02:02 investment in the country's main agricultural value chains.
02:06 The ten-year strategy will boost the productivity of farmers and human capital, develop energy
02:11 and transport infrastructure and improve the governance framework, a virtuous circle to
02:16 increase cooperation between national and international operators and economic bodies.
02:24 We're working both with the public and the private sector.
02:27 We recently completed a number of deep dives, studies on key agricultural sectors and we're
02:34 also working on the investment side, making loans, taking equity positions in agricultural
02:41 companies in the country.
02:44 These things together, as well as good policy from the government, are going to be what
02:48 moves things forward.
02:49 The country could increase its food production to feed its 100 million inhabitants and boost
02:54 its exports.
02:55 The sector employs around 70% of the population and accounts for 20% of GDP.
03:01 Despite this potential, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has low agricultural yields,
03:06 with 51 million hectares of uncultivated land out of 80 million hectares of arable land.
03:11 What we're doing is encouraging entrepreneurs and incubators to tell themselves that they
03:16 need to know the law, they need to know how to draw up a business plan, they need to have
03:21 bankable projects and then they must be able to have what we call a kind of financial management
03:26 of their projects.
03:27 With 80 million hectares of arable land, we need to ensure that malnutrition can be genuinely
03:32 reduced.
03:33 I think we can no longer afford to fail.
03:37 This proactive policy has seen the emergence of six large-scale food growing sites for
03:42 local consumption, scattered throughout the country.
03:45 One example is Bio Agro Business in the province of Congo Central.
03:50 The company produces long-grain rice using an agro-industrial approach and offers training
03:54 in rural areas.
04:00 Our agricultural engineers come to help farmers improve their crop yields.
04:04 We give them seeds and then we make machinery available to them.
04:10 We buy their produce so that they can live well.
04:15 These incubators develop local private enterprise through the emergence of young entrepreneurs
04:20 based on plots of land around production sites.
04:23 In a global context marked by ecological and security crises, the Democratic Republic of
04:28 the Congo is positioning agriculture as the linchpin of its economic development.
04:35 We have to believe in our own potential.
04:37 We have to really believe in it.
04:39 These companies are here.
04:40 That means they have the ambition, they have the courage.
04:43 They probably have the expertise to do what they're doing.
04:47 They just need support.
04:48 The most important thing is that we are given the opportunity, the framework to develop
04:52 fully.
04:53 [Music]
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