BUJUMBURA June 3rd (ABP) – The MPs met in plenary session on Wednesday June 2, 2021 in the Kigobe House, to analyze and pass a project to support the sustainable development agriculture and livestock value chains in Burundi (PADCAE-B) between the Republic of Burundi and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
The Minister of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, Dr Déo Guide Rurema who had come to explain that bill to the MPs, informed that the PADCAE-B project is financed by the African Development Bank (ADB) Group with 15,000,000 units of account equivalent to $ 20 million. It will intervene in the provinces of Ngozi, Kirundo and Muyinga located in the north of Burundi with a total population estimated at 2,956,784 inhabitants (24% of the national population), an area of 1,671 ha (i.e. 18% of the total area) and a density of 553 inhabitants / km2.
Dr Rurema also pointed out that the goal of the PADCAE-B project is to make a lasting contribution to improving food and nutritional security and increasing the income of the people. Project interventions will be mainly focused on a limited number of value chains including the growing of rice, maize, and the raising of goats, pigs and fish, identified by the beneficiaries.
The Minister in charge of agriculture did not forget to point out that the latter will directly benefit 138,060 individuals, 56% of whom are women, and indirectly all 2,743,366 inhabitants of the 3 provinces where the project will take place. He also specified that at the central level, the key beneficiaries are the ministry in charge of agriculture and its technical departments and affiliated structures such as research, development and training institutions.
At the decentralized and community levels, he indicated that the beneficiaries will be the provincial departments of agriculture and livestock, cooperatives and organizations of actors in the agriculture and livestock value chains, agricultural households particularly the most vulnerable groups including young people and women, agricultural supervisors and monitors on the hills, animal health workers as well as private sector companies that will benefit from the implementation of the project.
During the questioning session, the MPs asked what criteria for choosing the provinces where the PADCAE-B project will intervene. The Minister replied that the existence of swamps and potential watersheds was considered for integrated land development interventions, and the availability of lakes in that intervention area offers hill irrigation potential. The AfDB would also like to extend its activities already carried out in Kirundo province to the two neighboring provinces including Ngozi and Muyinga.
Regarding the fact of putting such projects in all the provinces of the country to avoid the imbalance at the level of development, the minister reassured by saying that there are other projects which will intervene even in other provinces of the country.
Concerning the monitoring and evaluation of projects to check whether the profitability is greater than the invested capital, the minister replied that there is a partner coordination unit within his ministry and that the monitoring is there. He also pledged that harvest storage sheds will be built in all regions of the country and that some challenges that have arisen in the past in the management or implementation of projects are being addressed.
After the analysis, the MPs unanimously passed that financing agreement.