BUJUMBURA December 27th (ABP) – The Minister of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, Mr. Déo Guide Rurema, proceeded, on Thursday December 23, 2021, to the presentation of the achievements of the first half of 2021-2022, where more than 24 billion Burundi francs have already been used, out of more than 30 billion of the annual budgets allocated to that ministry.
During the presentation, the minister in charge of Agriculture said that currently, production is good almost across the country, and this following the effort made by the government and its partners, both public and private, in awareness raising at all levels.
In the same perspective of encouraging agricultural productivity, Mr. Rurema said that there is a center funded by China, which is being set up and research is being carried out to obtain good seeds of rice and maize which can give a good yield to the farmers.
He added that this research is also done on industrial plants including tea and coffee.
The minister in charge of agriculture also stressed that the availability of FOMI fertilizer on the national territory has meant that the government does not suffer from the difficulties of importing chemical fertilizers from outside.
He also added that research is being carried out in the field of animal husbandry, in order to enable stockbreeders to achieve a better yield, specifying that, during the past semester, there were distributions of livestock and especially of goats in order to allow the people to obtain manure for their agricultural fields. Mr. Rurema also said that considerable efforts are being focused a lot on fish farming, so that Lake Tanganyika cannot be the only source of fish on its own.
During the presentation, the minister in charge of agriculture clarified that there is currently a significant shortage of sugar. In order to significantly reduce this problem, the land development of sugar fields is underway with the objective of reaching 4,000 hectares which could easily generate 35,000 tons of sugar, and this could, in a way, reduce the frequent shortage of sugar.
According to Mr. Rurema, during the past 6 months, the harvest has been good thanks to the new method of management of the swamps, where people are sensitized to exploit them, at least 3 times a year.
According to the minister in charge of agriculture, contour lines on agricultural land and erosion control hedges were put in place. For that purpose, at least 4,000 hectares of swamps have been developed and contour lines have been drawn on 32,000 hectares of agricultural land. In the same sector, he continues to say, the irrigation method has been significantly developed to such an extent that currently, motor pumps that facilitate this irrigation are being distributed among the people.
Mr. Rurema further reported that new industrial crops are being tested in order to introduce them to Burundi. Here, he mainly mentioned, millet, cashew and macadamia, stressing that the introduction of those new plants will be a huge asset for the country, especially as their sale will help to obtain foreign exchange.
Achievements are also satisfactory in the environmental field, he insisted.