Study of the cassava, timber and charcoal value-chains for an agroforestry plantation Democratic Republic of the Congo

Context of the service

Located on the Bateké plateaus, the agroforestry plantations of Ibi village are the first project in the DRC to have generated and sold forest carbon credits certified by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol.

In place on about 1,500 ha, these plantations are mainly composed of Acacia spp. Cassava is grown in inter-row areas during the first years of planting. After three seven-year production cycles, the acacias are transformed into charcoal. On the same principle, tests have been carried out with several dozen other species, preserved in an arboretum.

The Sustainable Green Wood (SGW) project, led by Mushiete & Cie SARL, aims to extend the current plantations to 5,200 ha and improve the initial model, in particular by diversifying forest species (less Acacia spp. and more indigenous species), by providing for the local production and processing of timber and by diversifying processed cassava products.

Services provided

As part of the feasibility study of the SGW project funded by the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), SalvaTerra was mandated to conduct three market studies (cassava, charcoal, timber) on the city of Kinshasa.

These market studies involved a mission to identify and calibrate field surveys, the remote coordination of field interviewers, and the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data encoded on Kobo. These studies covered the following aspects:

- Supply (routes, yields, productions);

- Demand (current but also potential uses);

- Value chain (actors, flows, logistical constraints);

- Trends (prices, volumes, supply/demand drivers);

- Challenges and opportunities (in terms of production, processing, marketing);

- Strategic and operational recommendations for the project.

Summary of the service

Study of the cassava, timber and charcoal value-chains for the feasibility study of an agroforestry plantation, based on qualitative and quantitative analyses (remotely coordinated interviewers in Kinshasa): Supply (routes, yields, production); Demand (current and potential uses); Value chain (actors, flows, logistical constraints); Trends (prices, volumes, supply/demand drivers); Challenges and opportunities (production, processing, marketing); Recommendations for the project.