Integrated farming systems in Kinshasa (DRC) Diversity of agricultural practices

In Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, integrated farming of livestock and fish farming is little documented while it is an interesting way of ecological intensification systems. After identifying the density of fish ponds in the territory of the city using satellite images, about 200 farms with at least one pond and located in 2 in peri-urban and rural areas were surveyed to characterize the practical integration of the agricultural system. The preliminary results in one of the valleys indicate that the practice of agriculture in synergy with the pig and fish farming is a common practice although flow of components are still insufficiently integrated and some of them are not optimized . The fish - pig farming associations with or without vegetable production are 44 % of the sample. The identification of flow on farms showed that the manure of pigs is mainly used for crops (51%) or sold (28%), while a small part is used to fertilize the ponds. This may be explained by the predominant share of income (67%) devoted to vegetable production while sludge of ponds is rarely used to fertilize area of vegetable production. Residues of vegetable crops are rarely used to feed pigs and fish because of their limited availability. Feeding pigs and fish is based primarily on agro-industrial by-products such as wheat bran (81%) and the spent brewery grains (62%) and forages (62%). The presentation will analyze the results obtained in the three sites visited and outline opportunities for improvement.