FAO purchases groundnuts seeds for refugee farmers

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has disbursed US $12,000 for the local purchase of groundnuts seeds for use by Democratic Republic of Congo refugee farmers living in the Central African Republic, an official told IRIN on Thursday. "As the harvests were not good this year, we prefer to collect seeds little by little [so as] to have enough for the coming season," Etienne Ngounio-Gabia, the FAO programme officer, said. Some 2,960 Congolese farmers living at Camp Molangue, 120 km south of the capital, Bangui, are the beneficiaries of the 12-mt of groundnut seeds, for planting in April 2004. Grouped in 100 cooperatives, which include local farmers, the refugees have intensified farming since early 2003 to survive the suspension of food distribution by the UN World Food Programme in January. Refugee farmers had previously attempted to cultivate groundnuts but had failed due to non-adherence to the planting calendar. Ngounio-Gabia said suppliers for the April planting season had already been identified and that the seeds would mainly be purchased from the northern provinces of Nana Grebizi, Ouham Pende and Kemo, reputed as the nation’s groundnuts granary. The three provinces were affected by the October 2002-March 2003 rebellion by Francois Bozize that annihilated the farming sector, with farmers spending months in hiding and consuming their seeds. In the meantime, the refugee farmers who were facing market problems for their surplus maize have finally sold all their 543 mt to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and to a local brewery, Castel. In September and October, the UNHCR bought 90 mt that is being distributed to 700 vulnerable refugees in Camp Molangue. Castel bought the remaining 363 mt of maize in October.