Owando Forum Places Agriculture Centre Stage
In the balmy river town of Owando, three hundred kilometres north of Brazzaville, the sixth edition of the Forum Horizon Initiative and Creativity unfolded from 28 to 30 October under the patronage of the local deputy, Joël Abel Owassa Yaucka. Conceived as a think-tank for home-grown innovation, the gathering convened legislators, senior civil servants and entrepreneurs around a shared ambition: translating the demographic energy of the Republic of Congo into productive, climate-smart agribusiness.
The opening day rapidly set the tone. Before an audience that included the deputy for Oyo’s second constituency Serges Ikiemi, the deputy for Ngoko Blaise Ambeto and the Director-General for Vocational Training and Employment Auxence Léonard Okombi, three panellists converged on a single assessment: the Protected Agricultural Zones (ZAP) of Ngoko and Ondzi have become veritable nurseries for the trades of the soil. Their assertion, greeted with lengthy applause, provides fresh evidence that territorial planning tools introduced in recent years are beginning to bear fruit (ACI).
ZAPs, Living Laboratories for Rural Youth
Created to safeguard farmland while fostering value chains, ZAPs offer irrigation, extension services and secure tenure at subsidised rates. In the Cuvette’s dense mosaic of forests and savannah, Ngoko and Ondzi are now attracting cohorts of young graduates eager to turn business plans into orchards, fish ponds or seedling nurseries.
“A Protected Zone gives us time, land and coaching—three assets difficult to obtain simultaneously outside the programme,” one participant confided on the sidelines of the forum. Panel experts argued that the resulting critical mass of start-ups has generated peer-to-peer learning and, more subtly, a culture of rural entrepreneurship that had long struggled to emerge.
Value-Added Processing Gains Ground
If primary production is thriving, downstream transformation is also accelerating. The fourth speaker of the day, agro-processor Amanda Bouya, lifted the curtain on her family venture in Makoua. With modest equipment, the unit already manufactures cocoa tablets and red palm oil. Bouya announced plans to commission a modern, digitally monitored chocolate factory within twelve months, a leap she believes will be catalytic for the national ‘Made in Congo’ label.
Her testimony resonated with the forum’s premise that agricultural competitiveness lies as much in branding and food safety compliance as in tonnage harvested. By embedding processing plants close to raw-material basins, Ngoko and Ondzi could reduce transport costs and carbon footprints while infusing local economies with skilled jobs.
Financing and Regulation: The Next Frontier
Speakers nevertheless cautioned that incubation without liquidity risks stalling. They urged the Fonds d’impulsion, de garantie et d’accompagnement (FIGA) to extend tailored credit lines and risk-sharing mechanisms to graduates of the NGO Dynamique Owando Pluriel’s training courses. According to FIGA estimates presented informally in Owando, a portfolio of twenty micro-enterprises could be bankable as early as next quarter, provided working-capital needs are secured.
Public health considerations added a complementary angle. Professor Jean Rosaire Ibara, Minister of Health and Population, used the forum to preview a forthcoming General Hygiene Code intended to keep urban centres free of refuse. Clean streets, he argued, are not merely aesthetic but essential to agribusiness: traceability auditors increasingly scrutinise waste management protocols in supply zones before certifying products for export markets.
À retenir
The FHIC showcased how territorial tools conceived in Brazzaville translate into tangible field opportunities. Ngoko and Ondzi now stand out as pilot models where land security, youth dynamism and budding agro-industries intersect. The challenge for policy-makers is to scale these successes without diluting their integrated nature, keeping the value chain—from seed to supermarket shelf—anchored in Congolese hands.
Le point juridique/éco
ZAP status is grounded in national land-use legislation that designates protected perimeters for agricultural vocation, shielding them from speculative real-estate pressure. Enterprises installed therein must comply with environmental impact assessments and may benefit from fiscal incentives under the Investment Charter. The impending Hygiene Code should reinforce this framework by codifying waste-disposal standards and penalties, thereby reducing reputational risk for exporters. Together, these instruments aim to secure the legal predictability investors require while advancing the government’s agenda of food sovereignty and youth employment.