Niari Valley

The Niari valley is a fertile region in the Niari Department in the south west of the Republic of the Congo. The soil in the area is good and this state is an important agricultural and industrial region.

The Mayombé Escarpment in the Republic of the Congo rises to 800 metres (2,600 ft) and runs parallel with the coast. It is a forested area with high rainfall. Inland from this and at a lower elevation is the Niari Valley. It is an area of savannah and woodland and the rainfall here is lower. The valley has most of the country's agribusinesses and the main crops are coffee, cocoa, sugar, maize, tobacco and palm oil. Livestock is also reared in this area. The River Niari is not used for transport because the navigable stretches are separated by frequent rapids, and where it flows through the Mayombé Escarpment there are gorges. Big game such as elephant, leopard and buffalo still roam in this area, especially in the Mount Fouari Reserve.

The Niari Valley has an area of about 400,000 hectares. Three quarters of this is fertile land with a deep layer of humus. After World War II, the families of a group of people that had been in the French Resistance in Aubeville, France, moved to the valley to set up a communal farming project. At the time some pioneering French farmers were already located in the valley but there were few native inhabitants in the area. The valley had the advantage of having the only railway line in the country running through it. The new settlers were granted a concession of 5,500 hectares but encountered difficulties in their early years, including plant pests and diseases, droughts and occasionally hailstorms. They did small-scale crop raising, poultry rearing and livestock husbandry, and tried out new crops such as rice, groundnuts and tobacco.

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