Agricultural Development and the Belgian Congo: L'Institut National pour l'Etude Agronomique du Congo belge

Agricultural development in Belgian Congo has so far been

understudied, especially in comparison to the French and British

African empires This project wants to use the case of scientific

parastatal INEAC (Institut National pour l'Etude Agronomique du

Congo belge) to shed light on how Belgian colonial policy and

discourse around agricultural development was formed and changed

INEAC operated in both a scientific and a colonial context: where and

how these two contexts met and which consequences that had for

development policy, will be an important focus of this research As

indicated in recent research, the project will focus on the relationship

between discourse and practice of development policy, with several

studies on French and British cases showing that the two are not

always as intertwined as expected A last focus will be the evolution

from colonial to postcolonial and modern development policy, to find

out how the colonial past has influenced what came after