Uncertainty forces the daily lives of small farmers Bushi in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, for over a decade after the banana bacterial wilt has literally broken the economic landscape, social, cultural and ecological region. This study attempts to highlight the socio-economic factors that influence the choice of strategies and practices of farmers face this crisis. The data, both quantitative and qualitative, were collected from 232 farmers in 16 localities of Kabare and Walungu in South Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The result of the econometric analysis shows a correlation between socioeconomic factors and farmers' practices. All things being equal, factors such as age, participation in off-farm activities, experience, size of household, size, membership in the association, access to credit, possession of livestock, traumatic history, the importance of the banana and the severity of the crisis significantly influenced the choice of practices and copings strategies.
These results suggest approaches and agricultural and economic stimulus programs that integrate various farmers' logic in the Bushi area to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Studies on the effects of armed conflict in the DRC are more focused on the looting of natural resources and the various human rights violations, with little attention to issues of recovery and socio-economic increase of small farmers. The interest of the actors were more focused on the technical aspects with little emphasis on the importance of community approach. In this paper, We examine the possibilities and means that small farmers effectively revitalize agricultural activities and access more benefits in the post-war context. To collect data, we carried out questionnaire surveys on 300 households, research meetings and interviews. Exploratory factor analysis in principal component has been mobilized to give meaning to quantitative data. The results of the study show that three mechanisms enable small farmers to revitalize their activities in post-conflict mountainous Kivu. These including (i) to have the organized small groups of farmers whose number is between 20 and 30 members; (ii) to promote the existence of an asymmetry between the interests and resources of the actors involved in the collective action, and (iii) create more roles of decision-makers at all levels of social components. Finally, it has been proved that successful collective action are (1) a key to growth agricultural production, (2) the widespread adoption of technologies, (3) easy market access and (4) minimizing conflicts related to natural resources, mainly land.