Mayombe forest in the project area. - - Action Programme for the Prevention of Food Losses. This project, which started in 1980, concerns the Niari region and part of the Kouilou region of the People's Republic of the Congo and the Project work team is based near Niari's chief town, Loubomo, the plot donator. The main features of the 35 ha project area are the Niari Valley with savannah woodland and forest galleries and two large montane forest areas, namely the Chaillu Forest in the North and the Mayombe Range in the west. Rows of Eucalyptus Torrelliana were planted in 1983 and in 1984-85 market garden trials were run and a tree nursery was established with eucalyptus, pine, fruit trees and other species. Training activities also began for plot workers and students of the ENI (â&cole Nationale d'Instituteurs) of Loubomo. Local agriculture consists of shifting "slash-and-burn" cultivation but traditional subsistence farming is increasingly becoming cash crop farming, despite a number of problems in local marketing. Forest trees are felled in the dry season every year. The land is cleared, burned over and new fields prepared. The main crops grown are cassava, groundnut, maize and taro. Other crops include coffee and cacao, rice, yams and vegetables and there are numerous oil palm and fruit trees. Traditionally, men are in charge of tree-felling and clearing while women work in the fields. Cash crops, however, are usually grown by men.