National Institute for Agronomic Study of the Belgian Congo

This policy aimed to modernize indigenous agriculture by assigning plots of land to individual families (after rigorous prospection and soil analysis) and by providing them with government support in the form of selected seeds, agronomic advice, fertilizers, etc.

The indigenous agricultural techniques were combined with new scientific discoveries, aimed at creating more efficient hybrid farming models and increasing the living standards in the traditional rural communities.

[1] After the second World War, the indigenous peasantry programme became widely spread all over the rural parts of the Belgian Congo, based on the (economic) success of the pilot projects in the mid thirties.

This variety yields large numbers of small fruit with an excellent taste, is productive even on poor soils and is resistant to black leaf streak disease.

[2] There is some evidence that this cultivar may have originated in southern Thailand, introduced to the Kilo-Moto region in northeastern Congo and then brought to Yangambi before World War II.