Assessment Of The Sustainability Of Market Gardening Farms In South Kivu (Eastern Of Democratic Republic Of Congo)

Market gardening is currently a sector in which certain modern agricultural practices such as pure cropping and use of pesticides are developing, but are more and more questioned. The sustainability of such practices has not yet been evaluated in the highland regions of South-Kivu in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. To fill this gap, the sustainability of 368 randomly selected and stratified vegetable farms was assessed using the "Indicator of Sustainability of Vegetable Production" tool. Three types of farms were identified: 44% are large farms, 52% are medium farms and 5% are small farms. It was found that the small farms scored 60%, 53% and 57%, respectively on the three dimensions of sustainability: agro-ecological, socio-territorial and economic. On these three dimensions, large farm scores did not exceed 50%. These results show that the larger farms, oriented toward modernization, are less sustainable. In order to sustain market gardening in South-Kivu, it appears necessary to promote ecological intensification, integrated diversification and use of local inputs for all farm types, and especially for the large ones, engaged in intensive but not sustainable practices.