Thanks to government cooperation, World Bank funding and the implementation of the PICAGL programme, new dynamics are emerging in the rice value chain in South Kivu and Tanganyika in DRCongo. Increased productivity, sustainable production and high-quality local rice are creating new business opportunities for farmers and young people.
Alongside Rwanda and Burundi, bordering DR Congo, we find the plain of the Ruzizi River which flows into Lake Tanganyika. The rice production potential of this long stretch of land is enormous but the rice sector faces major challenges mainly due to a lack of government oversight and public services, among which:
Rikolto has been promoting agricultural investment and rice marketing in the region since 2011, but PICAGL presented an incredible opportunity to scale up our activities. PICAGL (Great Lakes Integrated Agriculture Development) is an ambitious project promoted by the Congolese government and financed through a World Bank loan. The project aims to increase agricultural productivity, create business opportunities and improve the resilience of food systems to crises in the DRC. It's focused on the development of four agricultural value chains, including rice.
I still remember the first time I came down to the Ruzizi Plain in the province of South Kivu. When we asked them about their challenges, every rice producer replied: “We don't have a market for our rice”. I was incredulous. Already at that time, the population of the city of Bukavu, 45 km away from the fields, was estimated at almost 1 million.
The completion of administrative procedures, alongside the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, hampered the implementation of project activities, which eventually started in 2019 instead of 2016. To make up for the time lost, an extension was granted and a second phase of the project was approved.
In the first phase of PICAGL 2019-2021, Rikolto's intervention was focused on four pillars:
The second phase of the project focused on water management and youth involvement.
In order to ensure a year-round supply of rice to urban consumers, access to irrigation and drainage water must be provided in all the production areas targeted by the project. To overcome the failure of UNOPS, PICAGL’s infrastructure provider, to establish new rice perimeters for farmers we decided to adopt the Smart Valley Approach, a community-based, participatory and less costly methodology developed by Africa Rice for constructing hydro-agricultural systems.
While consumers prefer whole grain long grain rice, this is to the detriment of producers for whom 25 to 30% of production is represented by broken rice after husking. Young people have taken this as an opportunity to transform production waste into various rice-based products (biscuits, croquettes, flour for porridge, patties, etc.) and new business opportunities.
The yields achieved through the application of SRI and ISFM were significantly higher than the yields of plots cultivated using farmers' normal practices. Compared to 2,7 t/ha in 2019, farmers achieved 4.5 tonnes/ha in South Kivu and 5.7 tonnes/ha in Tanganyika (2024), thanks to the technological innovations combined with access to quality seeds. Remarkably, while boosting these yields, farmers also achieved a far more rational use of inputs, successfully cutting the required seed sowing rate from a heavy 40 kg/ha in 2017 down to just 15–20 kg/ha. These results have convinced the farmers, who have increased the area of rice grown under SRI and ISFM by 30%.
"In Bwegera, the Tai variety has improved production from less than 2t/ha to 4t/ha, which gives us some hope. If we improve access to water, we could go up to 4.5t or even 5t per hectare..”
In order to ensure the effective management of the loans granted to producers for seed production, GEMAMs (groups of agri-multiplier households) were set up within the cooperatives. Each GMAM is made up of 25 to 30 neighbouring households.
I am in charge of a GMAM set up by the CABAS cooperative. We received a credit of 10 kg of Komboka seed for each household, to be repaid at harvest time either with part of the production or in cash. This seed credit was a relief for us because we did not have access to good quality seeds.
Feza Zabuloni |Farmer of CABAS cooperative
A total of 74 MSMEs (57 in Sud-Kivu and 17 in Tanganyika) received direct guidance in planning their operational activities. Rikolto supported these organizations to work together through a "cooperative synergies" approach, which encouraged them to pool resources for the collective purchase of agricultural inputs and services. Among these, 16 cooperatives received intensive support to build organizational capacity, improve governance, strengthen financial management, and adopt new accounting software (SAGE) to develop professional business plans. By linking these strengthened organizations with financial institutions (such as Equity-BCDC, SMICO, PAIDEK, and Coopec Kalundu), 10 cooperatives successfully secured nearly USD 1.22 million in credit. This included over USD 1 million from Equity-BCDC specifically to finance rice supply chains for the Bralima brewery. In 2024, Rikolto partnered with SMICO to launch an innovative "sub-distribution of credit" pilot, unlocking a new USD 149,000 lending phase for three participating cooperatives.
We have supported the development of new food products based on rice by-products. In the laboratory of the Evangelical University in Africa (UEA), 11 food formulas with high nutritional value were developed with 36 promising young entrepreneurs. Two of these start-ups (Uzima Food and STADL/HINJA) sell their products in supermarkets (Amigo and Stars Maket) in the city of Bukavu.
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