The Head of State revealed the motives that prompted him to baptize the year 2022, an agricultural year

GITEGA January 13^th (ABP) – The Burundi Head of State, Mr. Evariste Ndayishimiye, revealed to the press on Tuesday January 11, 2022 the motives that led him to baptize the year 2022, agricultural year. “I would like to encourage the Burundian population, without exception, to embrace agro-pastoral activity, because it is the basis of a country that wants to embark on the path of development”, he explained.

He was on his farms based in the Bitare zone, in Bugendana commune, in Gitega province (central Burundi), after a visit that he organized, the same day, to cooperatives. farm, in particular in the village of Kuwankana, in the commune of Gitega and the villages of Mutobo and Mashitsi, in the commune of Giheta.

The President of the Republic of Burundi was there in the company of his wife, the Minister of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, some parliamentarians elected in the constituency of Gitega and the governor of the province of Gitega.

Family photo of the head of state and his wife (middle) with those who accompanied him in front of the cornfield belonging to a cooperative

In that field trip, Mr. Ndayishimiye let it be known that the Burundian people have buried the hatchet and manifest the will to resume development.

As Burundi offers favorable conditions for the exercise of agro-pastoral activity, by its good climate and its rich soil, he said, “we must rely on these assets to restore food security, subsequently, harvesting crops, creating agricultural processing industries and looking for markets for foreign exchange.

To achieve that, Mr. Ndayishimiye launched a vibrant appeal to everyone to roll up their sleeves to increase production. To the Burundian intelligentsia and to economic operators, he asked to join forces and take the lead in the conduct of his development project.

More precisely, he asked them to sensitize the youth to become actively involved in agricultural entrepreneurship in cooperatives, to no longer consider themselves unemployed when they have intelligence and strength. To the large landowners, he asked to lend their fallow farms to those who have the means to develop them.

As for banking and micro-finance institutions, Mr. Ndayishimiye asked to involve the National Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (FENACOBU) in granting loans to agricultural cooperatives at a low interest rate.