Unlike many other African countries, the Republic of Congo does not suffer from lack of rainfall and despite the country having one third of its mass as part of the Congo basin, it still has eight million hectares available for farming to support a population of under four million. The country should be food self sufficient, yet out of that great landmass only 200,000 hectares are used for agriculture.

Part of the reason for this is that under Marxist rule, which was abandoned in the early 1990s, peasant organisations were set up to run state farms, however with the collapse of the state farm policy in 1986, these large farms were abandoned and the agriculture sector became dominated by smallholdings managed by families that concentrated on peanut, rice, corn, cassava and yam production, but often without the skills and knowledge to work the land effectively.

President Sassou announced ambitions to ensure the country would be self-sufficient in food by the year 2000 however despite overseas aid programs such as the Special Food Security Program, the National Food Security Program and the Agricultural and Rural Development Program, the Republic of Congo is far from being able to meet its own food needs through agriculture and many of its citizens suffer from mal-nourishment.

The failure of these programs to increase the Republic of Congo's agriculture production means that every year the country is required to import about 30% of its food needs; in particular meat products, cereals, flour and starch, vegetables, oils and fats at a cost of £120m per annum out of the budget of an already poor country. This video documentary explores the challenges of the agriculture and farming sector in the Republic of Congo.