BUJUMBURA July 30th (ABP) – The Minister of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, Mr Deo Guide Rurema has drawn up a largely positive assessment and his staff is given 92.4% for the fiscal year 2020/2021. According to the report presented, agricultural, animal and fish production have increased. In the field of food crops, 60,850.25 tons of organo-mineral fertilizers and 14,098.25 tons of dolomite were made available; 445,184 tons of hybrid maize seeds, 41,821 tons of rice, 410 tons of potato, 548,032 tons of seeds of twining beans, 57,122,700 sweet potato cuttings and 1,295 kg of vegetable seeds were received. They have set up 9 agricultural outreach centers with the technical and financial support of the ministry. These are also 94 agricultural outreach centers over 2,871.4 ha for the 2021 season A and 110 agricultural outreach centers out of 5,033.2 ha for the 2021 growing season B by cooperatives and private individuals under the supervision of the ministry. In addition, 51,000 agricultural households have benefited from loans as part of the capacity building of producers, 5,000 vulnerable households have benefited from financial support and 3,003 cooperatives have been technically supported by the technical services of the ministry in charge of agriculture.
Four communal agro-silvo-pastoral development centers are being built in the communes of Bugendana, Bwambarangwe, Muruta and Giheta.
To the assets of that ministry is added the construction of a stock of phytosanitary products of 2,200 liters of Iron, 2,000 kg of Orthene, 1,300 liters of Kitazin, 2,800kg of Ridomyl Mz, 799.75 liters of Dursban 4 E, 1,827.5kg of Dursban 5G, 226.5kg of CogaDithalm, 4.658kg of super actalm, 752litres of Kitazin and 1,000 liters of Decis. In the field of industrial crops, 17,287,272 coffee seedlings were produced, 15,387,144 tons of green coffee were produced and the revenue from the sales of coffee is US $ 36,421,150.18. For tea, 50,337.77 tons of green tea leaves were picked, 10,612.75 tons of dry tea were produced, and 8,633.8 tons of dry tea were marketed for an amount of $ 18,323,376. According to the report, 172,897 oil palm seedlings were produced and planted in nurseries at Dama and Kinyinya, 28,157.42 tons of palm oil were produced and 346 ha of old palm groves were converted.
Regarding cotton, 2,089.51 ha of cotton were mechanized and 777 tons of seed cotton were produced and 304 tons of cotton lint were produced. A new plant, the cashew tree, was introduced and 30,000 seedlings were put in place while 2,200kg of millet seeds were released. For sugar cane, 20,435,700kg were produced and the revenue from its sales is 259,762,418 BIF. In that field, a roadmap has been drawn up for the rehabilitation, modernization and extension of the plantations and the factory.