BUBANZA May 22nd (ABP) – Burundi Prime Minister Gervais Ndirakobuca, accompanied by two ministers, the one responsible for the Interior and that in charge of Agriculture, as well as the ambassador of China to Burundi, participated on Saturday, May 20, 2023, in the harvest of hybrid rice, which was proliferated by Chinese experts of the Pilot Agricultural Center in Burundi, located in Kizina of Gihanga commune (north-west of Burundi), a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
In three years of research, those Chinese experts of the Agricultural Pilot Center in Burundi have already found seven varieties of rice, including hybrid rice. This variety has already been distributed to farmers in some of the SRDI rice cooperatives, operating an area of 145 hectares in Bubanza province.
Those who have benefited from those hybrid rice seeds in Bujumbura province are cooperatives operating 100 hectares.
And for this variety of hybrid rice, production is estimated between 10 and 11 tons per hectare, when the local variety did not exceed six tons per hectare.
Some of the young people, agricultural technicians and members of rice cooperatives have already benefited, through that agricultural pilot center, from training in agricultural techniques for application in their fields and those of the neighborhood.
In that center too, hybrid maize and hybrid rice adapted to the highlands are being multiplied there.
The Chinese Ambassador to Burundi has promised to send ten other experts in agriculture, for the support of the responsible and hard-working Government. It requires good collaboration and cooperation with different institutions.
As for the Prime Minister of the Republic of Burundi, he is delighted with that support from China, which accompanies Burundi in increasing agricultural production. He invites the beneficiaries of those selected seeds to follow the instructions of the agricultural technicians, and to the latter to properly assimilate the knowledge taken from that Center, to make them benefit others.
Mr. Ndirakobuca asks those Chinese experts to also consider the artificial insemination of rabbits in order to develop rabbit farming in Burundi.
He has recommended the ministry responsible for agriculture to facilitate the task for them for the good collaboration.
Note that in Bubanza province, the estimated area for rice growing during the 2023 growing season C is 2617 hectares.