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Geography, agriculture and the economy
Geography
Located astride the Equator in west-central Africa, the Republic of the Congo shares borders with Gabon, Angola, Central African Republic, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has a surface area of 342,000 km2, a tropical climate and a wealth of natural resources, including oil, forests, water and arable land. The country’s population, which was 3.8 million in 2004, has been growing in recent years at an annual rate of about 3 per cent. More than 60 per cent of population is concentrated in the southern part of the country in the cities of Brazzaville, the capital, and Pointe Noire, the main economic centre, which is on the Atlantic Ocean. In addition, many people live along the railroad and adjacent highway that connect the two cities. Agriculture Despite agriculture’s vast and untapped potential, development of the sector in the Congo has been neglected. Rapidly rising oil revenues overshadowed agriculture in the national economy. Agricultural production has declined steadily over recent decades and in 2005 agriculture’s share of gross domestic product (GDP) was 5.6 per cent. Less than 2 per cent of the Congo ’s arable land is cultivated. About 145,000 small-scale farmers cultivate limited holdings of an average of 1.4 ha, using traditional methods. They produce more than 90 per cent of the country’s food crops. In the south farmers produce cassava, banana, maize, groundnuts and vegetables. In the centre of the country the main crops are potatoes, groundnuts, onion and cassava. Farmers in the north produce cocoa, coffee, cassava, palm oil and river fish. But national food production is not sufficient to meet local demand. Economy The Republic of the Congo is one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s main oil producers, and oil is the mainstay of the national economy. Oil production has helped boost GDP to an estimated US$5.1 billion in 2005. But as a result of a lack of transparency in public management and the financial drain of civil conflict, only a small portion of the population has benefited from oil revenues. Although the problem remains, there have been some improvements in the area of oil resource tracking, and the country is making efforts to increase financial transparency in the sector. Gross national income per capita has risen in recent years, reaching an estimated US$950 in 2005. Although the figure is relatively high for Sub-Saharan Africa, it masks extreme inequality in income distribution and unrealized potential benefits from oil wealth.
Source: IFAD, World Bank |
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