Niari Valley

The Niari Valley is a fertile agricultural region in the Niari Department, in the south west of the Republic of the Congo. It lies inland from the Mayombe Escarpment, a forested and rainy ridge that rises to about 800 metres and runs parallel to the coast, and it sits at a lower elevation than that ridge. Rainfall in the valley is lower than on the escarpment, and the land is a mix of savannah and woodland. The valley holds most of the country's agribusinesses, with coffee, cocoa, sugar, maize, tobacco and palm oil as the main crops, and livestock is also raised there. It covers about 400,000 hectares, of which roughly three quarters is fertile land with a deep layer of humus. The River Niari is not used for transport because its navigable stretches are broken up by rapids, and it runs through gorges where it crosses the escarpment. Big game such as elephant, leopard and buffalo still range in the valley, especially in the Mount Fouari Reserve. After the Second World War, French settlers founded farming projects here, and state research stations later introduced oil palm, sugar cane and rice.