ABSTRACT
The Ministry of Rural Economy comprised four main departments: Agriculture and Husbandry, Water and Forestry, Research and Planning, and Administration and Financing. The Cacao and Coffee Office, the Congolese Tobacco Office, and the Agriculture and Forestry Stabilization Fund. Since independence in 1960, the Congolese population has been growing at an annual rate of between 2 and 2.7%. The rate of rural population growth, on the other hand, has lagged far behind that of urban population. Rural/urban migration has long been a feature of Congolese life, as indicated earlier in the historical introduction, but the movement accelerated between 1955 and 1965, when urban population increased at rate the rate of 10.6%. In 1975, working with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Science, which supervised the centers, the French government began a program to assist the Congolese in reestablishing its agricultural research facilities.
