KAYANZA/BURURI August 17th (ABP) – The provincial offices of environment, agriculture and livestock of Kayanza (north) and Bururi (south) along with the provincial administration, proceeded last week the launch of the pruning and mulching campaign for coffee trees.
In Kayanza province, related activities took place in Rubagabaga village in Gatara commune in a model coffee orchard comprising 15,800 coffee trees.
The adviser to the Governor of Kayanza in charge of development, Mr. Vénuste Nduwimana, on this occasion, called on coffee growers to properly maintain their coffee fields in order to increase production both in quantity and quality. For him, that will allow them to self-develop. It will also lead to the development of the country as that industrial coffee cultivation brings a lot of foreign currency into the country, he added. He took the opportunity to urge communal administrators and agronomists to sensitize coffee growers so that there is a model coffee orchard in each commune. It should be noted that this launch of the pruning and mulching campaign at the provincial level saw the presence of the director of the provincial office of the environment, agriculture and livestock in Kayanza, communal administrators, communal agronomists as well as village leaders and agricultural monitors from Gatara.
In Bururi province, the launch took place on the Kiganda hill of Gasanda zone, in Bururi commune, a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
The communal agronomist of Bururi, Emmanuel Manirakiza indicated that pruning and mulching is carried out every year to remove the branches of coffee trees that are not yet productive due to illness or old age. He pointed out that the maintenance of coffee groves requires efforts on the part of farmers and regular supervision of agricultural monitors and agronomists.
Coffee trees that reach 30 years old are to be replaced by new plants and it is in that way that a nursery on that hill in Kiganda with 11,826 plants has been set up.
However, officials from the provincial office of environment, agriculture and livestock believe that it is very few.
The coffee-growing population asks the State to revise upwards the price of a kilo of coffee because, they underlined, it is the traders who pocket a lot of money. She also has difficulty getting insecticides, which is why she asks for agricultural pharmacies to be provided with them.
The governor’s chief of staff, Juvent Ndayikeza, for his part, asked coffee farmers to extend their afforestation and sensitize others to take an interest in coffee growing, an industrial crop that generates foreign currency for the State, which in turn, imports products that the people need.