KAYANZA August 16th (ABP) – The Ministry of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock on Friday August 13, 2021, in Kayanza province (northern Burundi), launched the pruning and mulching. That activity was coupled with the launch of closing payment activities for coffee growers, a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
Those activities took place respectively in the Kigwandi villages in the Ninga zone, and Kiryama in the Nyabibuye zone, all of the Butaganzwa commune. Those activities were attended by the permanent secretary of the minister responsible for agriculture, the director of the Coffee Sector Development Office (ODECA), the directors of the provincial offices of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, as well as the communal administrators of Kayanza province, a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
At the end of the ceremonies, the governor of Kayanza, Colonel Rémy Cishahayo, indicated that the coffee sector is doing well in this province. He said he was pleased that Kayanza was among the top coffee producing provinces. He did, however, mention coffee growers who do not properly maintain their coffee orchards.
Governor Cishahayo took the opportunity to call on coffee growers to continue to develop coffee cultivation.
In his speech for the occasion, the permanent secretary at the ministry responsible for agriculture, Ir. Emmanuel Nzorironkankuze, pointed out that the Burundian government has spared no effort to develop the coffee sector.
Here he pointed out that he has raised the price of cherry coffee from 500 to 700 BIF.
“The Burundian government has also set up the Office for the Development of the Coffee Sector to revitalize this sector which risked falling into bankruptcy,” continued Ir. Nzorironkankuze, adding that the same government has made available to ODECA more than 17 billion Burundian francs to be able to pay the coffee growers on time. The permanent secretary at the Ministry of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock thus indicated that the coffee growers received 3,135,949,725 BIF for the 1st payment,
while they had 5,772,541,999 BIF as a 2nd payment. The same representative of the Ministry in charge of Agriculture reported that there are still cases of home pulping and that the price set by the state is 1,350 BIF per kilo. For him, coffee remains the most important industrial crop for the development of the coffee grower in particular and the country in general. It is with this in mind that he called on all stakeholders to actively intervene in that sector for its development. Mr. Ndorimana closed his speech by informing the owners of private pulping-washing stations that the payment deadline must not exceed August 15th.
As for the coffee growers of Butaganzwa interviewed by ABP, they indicated that among the main challenges they face are the lack of straw for the maintenance of their coffee orchards and the insufficient remuneration of day laborers working in mulching and pruning coffee trees, as well as cherry coffee picking. However, they thank the government for its various initiatives aimed at developing the coffee sector and ask it to always think about increasing the kilo of cherry coffee, since it is a crop requiring a lot of resources and efforts to rigorous maintenance in order to achieve a satisfactory and quality production.