The African Agricultural Leadership Institute (AALI), a technical partner and stakeholder in the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the DRC (ATA-DRC), participated in the workshop held from August 29 to 31 in Mbuji-Mayi, under the direction of the Consultative Council of the National Pact for Agriculture and Food (CCP-PNAA), to plan the activities for the 2024-2025 agricultural seasons, ensuring the continuity of the program.
This workshop held in Mbuji-Mayi with the participation of several other stakeholders and key players in the program. It aimed to capitalize on the lessons learned during the implementation of the first phase of the ATA-RDC, between 2022 and 2023, and outline technical pathways and actions that could enable the maximization of local farmers’ production and productivity. This is to be implemented through the Congolese government allocation of 5.1 million US dollars for the continuation of this program for one year in four provinces, namely: South Kivu, Kinshasa, Haut-Katanga, and Kasaï-Oriental.
Principally, the government released this amount following the advocacy of the CCP-PNAA, but also after the satisfactory evaluation of the activities of the ATA-RDC program carried out between 2022 and 2023 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, with the technical support of IITA and AALI in the sites of the Agricultural Volunteer Program (PVA); one of the major outcomes of this first phase was the creation and deployment of 27 youth brigades and farm technicians.
The African Agricultural Leadership Institute, in its commitment to involve young people in the agricultural transformation of the country, particularly through its Youth Brigade, has played and will continue to play a fundamental role in the implementation of the ATA-RDC program, in line with the priorities set by the Congolese government. These concerns (i) strengthening the aquaculture value chain, (ii) scaling up the maize-soya value chain, (iii) developing the cassava seed sector, and (iv) expanding the Youth Brigades in the mentioned provinces.