CIBITOKE April 11th (ABP) – The Prime Minister of the Republic, Gervais Ndirakobuca, carried out on Friday, April 7, 2023, a working visit to Cibitoke province, where he visited the rice-growing area of Nyakagunda, located in Rugombo commune, threatened by a viral illness of “Yellow Spotting”.
During this visit, he was accompanied by the minister in charge of the interior, a representative of the ministry in charge of agriculture, several executives and agricultural technicians and representatives of the Chinese company, which supplied this variety of hybrid seed, to BPEAE Cibitoke, which sold it to the said cooperatives, a check on the site by ABP has disclosed.
Out of a total of more than 600 hectares of rice, belonging to cooperatives, mostly Sangwe cooperatives, 210 hectares of rice were attacked by this viral disease.
According to the words of the agronomist technicians, this viral disease which declared itself a few weeks ago and is especially noticeable a few weeks before flowering, with very low rice yields. Thus, two options were issued for this problem. While agricultural technicians speak of yellow mottle virus, the Chinese speak rather that the problem is linked to the deficiency of trace nutrients, namely zinc and boron. On top of that, there is also the question of crop rotation, mentioned by some, who wonder why other varieties grown in the vicinity of the latter are not affected by this disease.
For all those options, Mr. Ndirakobuca decided to set up a commission of technicians from the ministry in charge of agriculture and officials from the ministry of the interior, to identify the area affected and the owners who should be compensated by the government and its partners. He urged Cibitoke’s agricultural technicians to support rice farmers, especially those whose rice fields have not been attacked by the disease. In the meantime, this disease will once again be analyzed for validation in another laboratory, but also the soil will be studied to find out if there is a lack of nutrients.
As for the victims of that situation, they claim compensation, explaining that they no longer have any hope of harvesting rice for this cropping season A 2023. They revealed that they have spent 27,000 Fbu per Kilogram of said Chinese seed, but also of the work force. So they estimate around ten million of our francs as a loss for each cooperative.