Agricultural land use in the Kingoma Group

With a view to contributing to the sustainable management of natural resources in the Kingomansala groupement a descriptive and analytical study was carried out from February to June 2017 to analyze the agricultural techniques exploited by professional farmers in order to assess their impacts on the balance of forest ecosystems. Field observations supported by village surveys showed that 90% of the targeted sample are sowing farmland that is less fertile than it used to be; the majority of the population of the Kingomansala group, i.e. 62%, is no longer achieving the expected crop yield, and 64% of those surveyed acknowledge having lost arable land. Among the causes linked to access to fertile soil in the terroir, 62% of the population incriminate deforestation and 30% attribute this to demographic pressure. Innovative and environmentally-friendly agroforestry practices need to be popularized in order to sedentarize slash-and-burn agriculture; mesological education needs to be stimulated to raise the awareness of the local population by bringing together a range of alternative activities contributing to sustainable development.