|
The new prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo says thecountry could halve its poverty rate in the next five years byexploiting its vast agricultural potential. Prime MinisterMatata Ponyo Mapon made the claim in a speech to the parliamentthis week outlining his government s agenda. But, there are fewdetails yet as to how the DRC is going to meet this target. In his first speech to the Democratic Republic of Congo s newparliament, Prime Minister Ponyo said that if the agriculturalsector could increase its growth rate to six percent, then the rateof absolute poverty in the country could be cut by 50 percent by2017. Huge agricultural potential Ponyo suggests there is great potential to double agriculturalgrowth, from three percent to six percent. He says the countryis only farming seven million hectares of the 75 million hectaresof arable land. The new government has just been sworn into office and has not yetdrawn up a budget, so there were no details in the primeminister s speech Monday on how much funding will be allocated toagriculture. Funding will have to be sharply increased, says Roger Kizungu, whoworks at the Congo s National Institute for Agricultural Research.Kizungu says that the first condition for achieving six percentgrowth in agriculture is for the government to commit 10 percent ofits budget to rural development. He says the Congo has already madethat commitment, but in fact it is spending far less than that andless than two percent on agriculture. Rural development includes spending on rural roads. The poor stateof the road network is one of the biggest obstacles facing Congo sfarmers. Government vs. donors Kizungu says the second condition for achieving six percent growthin agriculture is for donors to let the government shoulder itsresponsibilities. He says everyone agrees aid is needed, butthat donors should not take over the state s role, because thegovernment would then wait for the donors to do everything. He says donors have pledged that, if the government commits 10percent of its budget to rural development, they would commit fundsin the same proportion. An opposition member of parliament, Martin Fayulu, questionswhether agriculture really ranks high on the government s list ofspending priorities. "The Ministry of Agriculture is ranked number 20 [in spending]. You see the place they have ranked agriculture. There is noconsistency. This country was number one for palm oil in 1960s,and today Malaysia is exporting $20 billion every year in palm oilfrom the seeds they took from this country. What s theproposal for palm oil for this country? Nothing." Competing needs A member of parliament with the ruling alliance, Patrick Muyaya,says that that this government is making a priority of improvingservices for the Congolese people, but there are many competingneeds. "You know we have a lot of challenges in our country, but the firstis to give solutions for health problems, school problems, waterand power. That s the needs our people have," he said. In his speech, Prime Minister Ponyo told parliament that he wouldbe watching closely the performance of all sectors, including thenational electricity company. As he said this, there was apower cut - one of several during his speech. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Frosted Light Bulbs Manufacturer , China Clear Candle Bulbs, and more. For more , please visit Clear Candle Bulbs today!
Related Articles -
Frosted Light Bulbs Manufacturer, China Clear Candle Bulbs,
|
