Socio-technical Context of Market Gardening in the Ruzizi Plain in Eastern DRC: Constraints and Stakeholders' Strategies

Abstract

The Ruzizi Plain in general and the community of Ruzizi Plain in particular, although having considerable potential for the development of market gardening, do not manage to satisfy the demand for market garden produce in the main consumption area (Bukavu town), which continues largely to depend on Rwanda in its supplies. This situation suggests that market gardening in Ruzizi Plain is conducted in an environment marked by constraints. Some constraints relate to the actual process of production and marketing, and others are related to the quality requirements imposed by demand. However, all these constraints are all triggers for the malfunction of market gardening sector. Faced with this, market gardeners adopt adaptive behavior to reduce and turn round these constraints. The choice of strategies by market gardeners depends on the perception of the constraints encountered and the resources available. Done on a sample of 81 market gardeners, this study enables to identify, based on an analysis of the technical context, the constraints of tomato and aubergine at Ruzizi Plain, and the strategies developed by market gardeners in the face of these constraints.