Soil fertility transience in the region of Masako in Democratic Republic (RD) of Congo remains a major challenge to sustainable agricultural production. Recently, biochar application as soil amendment has attracted attention of the people across the world owing to its potential to improve soil physicochemical properties, crop yield and carbon sequestration into the soil. A study was conducted in Masako to analyze the use of charcoal (biochar) as soil amendment and assess its effects on soil chemical performance and some biophysical parameters of maize crop. The experiment was set up using randomized complete block design with three replications of three treatments comprising ½ kg of sieved (small-sized particulate) charcoal per m 2 (C 1 ), 1 kg of sieved charcoal per m 2 (C 2 ) and control group without charcoal (C 0 ). Data were subjected to analysis of variance, Pearson's phenotypic correlation and regression analyses using genstat 12 th edition. The results of the analysis of variance showed non-significant variation for most physicochemical properties of soil and maize phenotypic traits, indicating that treatments had the same effects on soil composition suggesting that there was no clear impact of charcoal amendment as applied except for phosphorus content and collar diameter of the maize crop which were significantly (P ≤ 0.047 and P ≤ 0.043 respectively) influenced by the treatments. The results indicated that biochar improved the soil phosphorus availability by up to 72% as accounted for by the linear contribution of the treatment C 2 indicating that biochar could be recommended for use in soil with low level of phosphorous.

The present study aims to explore smallholder's household living standard relevant to slash-and-burn agriculture, and determine trend of key crops grown with respect to their production and related generated average gross income in the region of Faradje, in the far northeastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Surveys were conducted on agronomic and social economic characteristics prevailing in the area, in five localities, involving 50 farming households based on a questionnaire designed. Questions asked were about yield and gross income, considered as dependent variables as well as household size, farmland area, farming systems, crop types, distance between farms and home, farm task allocation, duration of fallowing, types of off-farm activities and number of reared animals taken as independent variables. Graphs were plotted using R statistic package (Version 3.6.1, 2019-07-05) and correlation analysis was conducted using Genstat 12 th edition. The results showed that each household produced yearly on average 793.71 kg of paddy rice, 194.96 kg of maize grain, 175 kg of cassava chips, 70.50 kg of groundnut seeds and 8.60 kg of beans on an average of 0.81 ha of cropland in two cropping seasons. The results also showed that the total annual average income earned by one household was US $ 940.60 with individual average income of US $188.90. This was slightly higher than the national average real gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008 estimated at US $171; however, the figure was still unfortunately below the minimum of US $1 per day (0.52 US $/day) suggesting that slash-and-burn agriculture cropping system is far to achieve food security and accordingly improvement of economic situation in Faradje DRC. The household size and number of agricultural workers/households were weakly correlated with the average gross income (respectively, r = 0.29 and r = 0.35) whereas cropland surface area was moderately associated with the average gross income (r = 0.74). This demonstrates the importance of cropland surface in this cropping system in Faradje; suggesting that increasing farmers' gross average income through slash-and-burn cropping system requires cropland expansion. Consequently, much should be undertaken to mitigate adverse effects of the established cropping system over the overall environment.