Yangambi
Yangambi is a city in the Isangi Territory of Tshopo District, Orientale Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Location
Yangambi is on the north side of the Congo River and lies on the R408 road which connects it to Kisangani to the east.[1] This road is unpaved, rarely used in the rainy season and difficult to use at all times of the year.[2] The roads linking Yangambi to Weko and Isangi are also very poor.[3] The river provides an alternative route.[2] The town is also served by the small Yangambi Airport.[4] Mean annual rainfall is 1,835 millimetres (72.2 in).[5] August is the wettest month and February the driest. The skies tend to be partly cloudy even during the drier seasons.[6]
A visitor in 1888 described Yangambi as "very prettily situated on a piece of flat ground, backed by a semi-circle of fine wooded hills about for hundred feet high, across which lies the road to Yambuya ... The channel in front of Yangambi has very little water ... Later on, in the dry season, one can walk right across this channel to the islands in front".[7]
Agricultural research
During the colonial era, Yangambi was home to the Institut national pour les études agronomiques du Congo belge (INEAC). The INEAC experimental fields and laboratories were built along a road parallel to the north bank of the Congo river, and along a road stretching northward from the river for about 25 kilometres (16 mi).[8] In the 1930s researchers at INEAC found the relationship between the tenera, dura and pisifera oil palms.[9] Oil palms have relatively low yield around Yangambi compared to coastal regions. This appears to be due to the lower night temperatures in the continental interior, which have a mean minimum at Yangambi of around 20 °C (68 °F).[10]
The center developed a number of varieties of soy beans for use in different parts of the country.[11] Early-maturing varieties yielded over 1,200 kg/ha of soybeans.[12] Field trials showed that inoculation could increase yields by 80% to 300%.[13] In the 1950s INEAC researchers discovered the 'Yangambi km 5' (AAA) dessert banana. 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.[8] 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.[14]
More recently, the Institut Facultaire des Sciences Agronomiques, Yangami has undertaken studies with the International Food Policy Research Institute of Washington, D.C. to provide data to the government for use in developing an agricultural policy to improve crops yields in the country.[15]
References
- ↑ Carte des Districts...
- 1 2 Tshibaka 1992, pp. 16-17.
- ↑ Tshibaka 1989, p. 19.
- ↑ Yangambi (YAN).
- ↑ Corley & Tinker 2008, p. 61.
- ↑ Frankham, Ballou & Briscoe 2004, p. 175.
- ↑ Littell & Littell 1889, p. 41.
- 1 2 De Langhe 2005, p. 47.
- ↑ Corley & Tinker 2008, p. 23.
- ↑ Corley & Tinker 2008, p. 56.
- ↑ Shurtleff & Aoyagi 2009, p. 202.
- ↑ Shurtleff & Aoyagi 2009, p. 216.
- ↑ Shurtleff & Aoyagi 2009, p. 226.
- ↑ De Langhe 2005, p. 48.
- ↑ Tshibaka 1989, p. 12.
Sources
- "Carte des Districts et Territoires de l'ORIENTALE" (PDF). Reliefweb. October 2002. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
- Corley, R. H. V.; Tinker, P. B. H. (2008). The Oil Palm. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-470-75036-7.
- De Langhe, Edmond (June 2005). "The story behind the name 'Yangabi km 5'". Infomusa: the international journal on banana and plantain. Bioversity International. 14 (1). ISSN 1023-0076.
- Frankham, Richard; Ballou, Jonathan D.; Briscoe, David Anthony (2004). A primer of conservation genetics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-53827-0.
- Littell, Eliakim; Littell, Robert S. (1889). The living age ..., Volume 181. Littell, son & company.
- Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko (2009). History of Soybeans and Soyfoods in Africa (1857-2009): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook. Soyinfo Center. ISBN 1-928914-25-X.
- Tshibaka, Tshikala B. (1989). Food production in a land-surplus, labor-scarce economy: the Zairian Basin, Volume 1. Intl Food Policy Res Inst. ISBN 0-89629-076-X.
- Tshibaka, Tshikala B. (1992). Labor in the rural household economy of the Zairian basin. Intl Food Policy Res Inst. ISBN 0-89629-093-X.
- "Yangambi (YAN) Democratic Republic of the Congo". World Airport Codes. Retrieved 2011-10-10.