CIBITOKE August 21st (ABP) – The Provincial Office of Environment, Agriculture and Livestock (BPEAE), in collaboration with Burundi Coffee Development Authority (ODECA), organized, on Wednesday August 16, the provincial launch of activities of the coffee tree pruning and mulching campaign, at Mugimbu hill in Murwi commune.
It is the governor of Cibitoke province, Mr. Carême Bizoza, who chaired that activity. He appealed to the people to devote themselves to that campaign which must end with the dry season. He invited the coffee growers to prune and mulch, following the model of the technicians in that area. He specified that the coffee tree is an industrial crop that brings a lot of foreign currency to Burundi and that it is necessary to popularize and maintain it well, to increase the quantitative and qualitative production. Governor Bizoza took the opportunity to reassure coffee growers that the second round of payment for coffee sold, will take place before the start of the school year to allow parents to buy school materials for their children.
As for the supervisor of the ODECA, Mr. Dieudonné Niyokindi, pruning and mulching the coffee promote both increased production and soil fertility. He called on the people to grow massively that crop, which gives money in less than two years, once the plantation is well maintained. For Governor Bizoza, it is better not to associate the coffee tree with other crops. Anyone who wants to do this should seek advice from the technicians.
For the management of BPEAE Cibitoke, the choice of the Murwi commune to host the launching activities was not made at random. This is because this commune has, this year, many nurseries of coffee plants and has purchased a large quantity of NPK fertilizer, better suited for the coffee tree, he underlined.