A basket of freshly harvested Tilapia nilotica. - - Development of Rural Fish Farming: PRC/88/007/C/01/12. Food self-sufficiency in the year 2000 was the top priority of the Government of Congo. Fish farming is an integral part of the national programme to stabilize the rural population through higher income and better diets. The activity can encourage young people to settle in rural areas by providing productive and profitable work. A national project, financed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), was initiated to support the development of the fisheries sub-sector. It involved the training of extension agents, the periodic retaining of project extension agents, increasing the average annual yields in the rural sector and the major fish farming stations as well as improving the self-financing aspect of the stations.