Évaluation de certains indicateurs de développement socioéconomique attribuable au système agroforestier du plateau de Bateke en République Démocratique du Congo

Abstract

There is a growing scientific interest in agroforestry on the Bateke Plateau. Therefore, the evaluation of its impact cannot be limited to technical aspects such as improving soil fertility and productivity. There are also the socioeconomic aspects, expression of the improved well-being of farmers, which have led to this study. Surveys were carried out with 330 farmers as well as with the resource persons responsible for their supervision, in three agroforestry landscape on the Bateke plateau which are, villages around Ibi and Mbankana, and the Mampu agroforestry center. The key for this research was to find clues that shows social well-being improvement in agroforestry communities. For this study, the stabilization of farms, the sedentarization of farmers, as well as the existence of savings in appropriate structures such as banks. Survey results showed that in all sites, farmers value their activity as their main source of income. With years, breeding has been developed, from poultry to cattle as well as plantations of forest species other than Acacias sp. Rather timidly but surely, farmers have mentioned their savings in banking structures. All these observations lead us to think of a real anchoring in the metier and the maturation of farmers. Therefore, subsistence farming is no longer the only source of income for farmers. Evidences of the development of other agroeconomic sectors thanks to farmers sedentarization are all arguments that support the fact that agroforestry, which has already proved its worth, should be encouraged in similar landscapes of the Bateke plateau and in the lands impoverished by overexploitation of trees.

Keywords

• agroforestry
• socio-economy
• improved well-being