The vast majority of Central Africans depend upon agriculture to feed their families and earn a living. Hindered by rudimentary tools, inefficient techniques, and banditry, long days of backbreaking labor are often insufficient to produce a good harvest. Much of the harvest is eaten or sold immediately, leaving farmers without seeds to plant the following year. In a country where half the population is illiterate, farming is often the only way to survive. Education is one of the few ways to escape this path and assure a brighter future. In April and May 2008, Mercy Corps in collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) distributed peanut seeds to over 12,000 families in Nana MambÈrÈ Prefecture in northwestern CAR.

• Tags: Central African Republic, Agriculture, Education