Gloria MANGONI NDINDIR a John ULIMWENGU MUSUSA a,b a Agriculture &Rural Development Department, Prime Minister office (DR Congo) b International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) (March 14 – 18, 2016 / Washington, DC) Land & Poverty Conference 2016

Paradox : Huge potential and high poverty Land tenure environment Agricultural structural transformation strategy: Agriculture Business Parks (ABP) Bukanga Lonzo Pilot ABP and Local Communities Geospatial tools and community land allocation Conclusion and way forward

Agriculture is the sector with the potential to best meet the triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and food insecurity HUGE POTENTIALS HIGH POVERTY Area : 2,345,402 Km 2 Abundant natural resources : 67% covered with natural forest 49% covered with minerals 34% covered with arable land 63.4% of people live below the poverty threshold 43% are unemployed 58% of people suffer from food insecurity

SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE DOESN’T MEET THE COUNTRY’S FOOD NEEDS > 2 billions dollars to import basic food stuffs (Central Bank, 2014). Only 10% of 80 millions hectares available arable land are cultivated through subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture faces many challenges including land tenure security. Tenure insecurity is a significant factor with regard to determines the nature and type of investment needed to develop business around agriculture.

LAND TENURE ENVIRONMENT Sub Saharan Africa 10% of rural land are registered, the remaining 90% are managed informally leading to land grabbing, expropriation without fair compensation and corruption (Byamugisha, Frank Fulgence, 2013). DR Congo nearly all occupied land are owned and operated based on local customs and usages, and only about 2% of the land is under concessions formally granted and registered by the relevant administration (Nsolotshi & al, 2013). 65% of disputes before courts evolve around land conflicts (Ministry of Land Affairs, 2011). Absence of a formal legal framework to secure the land for local communities These statistics discourage investors, especially in agriculture sector

AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION STRATEGY INITIATIVE: AGRICULTURAL BUSINESS PARKS The government of the DRC has initiated an ambitious strategy through the establishment of 22 Agricultural Business Parks across the country, in order to fight against food insecurity, poverty and unemployment that the DR Congo is facing ; This initiative also addresses the issue of land tenure security.

AGRICULTURAL BUSINESS PARKS (ABPs) Agro-business parks are special economic zones for agricultural development over areas ranging from 10,000 to over 100,000 hectares ; These are fundamentally secure land on which will be developed, large- scale agricultural production and processing activities. Required infrastructure (like roads, energy, water for irrigation, and facilities, etc.) will be provided for to create business cities around agricultural production and processing activities ; In each of the selected sites often live local communities for which the right to access communal lands should be secured in order for them to benefit from the planned development of Agricultural Business Parks.

BUKANGA LONZO PILOT ABP 250 kilometers away from Kinshasa (DRC), capital city, in the Kwango province. untapped vast savannah stretching over 80,000 hectares located between the confluence of Kwango and Lonzo rivers, bordered in the southern part by the National Highway 1, leading to Kinshasa.

BUKANGA LONZO PILOT ABP & LOCAL COMMUNITIES 428 households in 6 villages separated from each other by an average distance of 11 km 19% women as households heads Average of 5 children per households Average distance / time to reach the farm : 6 Kilometers in 45 minutes ; Areas cultivated/households : 0.25 hectares For the sake of social cohesion, the DRC government decided not to move these households out but to integrate them into the ABP strategy.

BUKANGA LONZO PILOT ABP & LOCAL COMMUNITIES There is a need to secure land where these households will be practicing their activities, under the ABP technical support. There is an opportunity to use geospatial tools in this context because they enable not only to delineate the farmland but also to design a database that relates each producer / household to a specific geographical area, monitoring their individual progress becomes much easier. The information system designed will help to address issues of land spatial allocation, ensures fair distribution and tenure security for households and facilitate the land registration process.

GEOSPATIAL TOOLS & COMMUNITY LAND ALLOCATION Methodology : 1. Communal Land demarcation for each village (working place) criteria : distance to the village < 2 kilometers (15 minutes) Data / Layers used : ABP boundary, ABP Villages location, Soil Analysis Results, technical operational plan of the ABP, number of households per village. 2. Comprehensive land mapping for reach households criteria : area of 2 hectares per households Data / Layers & Tools used : ABP boundary, ABP Villages location, Soil Analysis Results, technical operational plan of the ABP, number of households per village Spatial Analysis tools (Arc GIS – ESRI software) to set the 2 hectares grid, corresponding to the plot of land allocated to each household

COMMUNAL LAND DEMARCATION PER VILLAGE The soil analysis results shown that out of the 80,000 hectares available, there are only 55,000 hectares that are conducive to agricultural activities and the rest for supporting infrastructure including housing development. The Baseline socio-economic survey results revealed that farmers cover a distance of 6 Kilometers in 45 minutes to reach their fields. Thus, a 2 kilometer radius was defined from the target villages. In order to get suitable land for developing households farming activities we combined soil analysis layer with the 2 kilometers radius around villages locations. The sites that meet this requirement have been defined based on the number of households in each village. A total of 1000 hectares have been defined

COMPREHENSIVE LAND MAPPING OF HOUSEHOLDS In the next five years, the Bukanga Lonzo agro- business park plans to develop 51,000 hectares, for which 50,000 hectares will be used for food production and 1,000 hectares for vegetable production. The remaining land will be allocated to farming activities for local communities, livestock production, processing and non-agricultural activities (laboratories, schools, agricultural universities, hospitals, and other services). Based on the land limits of each village, the GIS spatial analyst tools have been used to set the two-hectare grid that corresponds to the plot of land that will be allocated to each household.

CONCLUSION & WAY FORWARD This paper’s objective was to build a georeferenced database of plots of land for households living in villages inside the Bukanga Lonzo pilot ABP. Each plot of land includes information on the identity of the head of household such as the ID number, age, gender, number of children, marital status and profession. Such a database will be expanded and made available to the public, particularly land administration of the Kwango province for land registration and titling. This database will be used as also a tool to guarantee household fair access to land without discrimination. This could therefore be the first step toward a pilot project of modernization of land administrationin the DRC.

THANK YOU