BUJUMBURA, May 8th (ABP) – As part of the “Tubungabunge isi ndimwa” project, the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, in partnership with development partners and civil society organizations including CAPAD, CSA, ADISCO and BD, launched the “soil fertility in Burundi” platform on Friday May 3.
According to the permanent secretary at the ministry in charge of Agriculture, Mr. Emmanuel Niyungeko, there are essential elements that are missing to achieve sustainable, profitable and socially balanced agriculture.
According to him, the Burundian soil is quite poor, with an acidity of around 75%. That pushed the Ministry in charge of Agriculture and its various partners, including professors from the University of Burundi, independent researchers, fertilization organizations, civil society organizations and development partners to put in place the soil fertility platform allowing a framework for exchange and dialogue in order to make their contribution to meeting that challenge.
Soil acidity is due to several factors, including overexploitation of the soil, said Mr. Niyungeko, recalling that in past years, there was crop rotation which allowed the restoration of soil fertility during the period not exploited from the ground. There is also erosion which takes elements such as calcium, potassium and magnesium, at the time when the aluminium lesion which remains constitutes a base of a certain acidity, he continued. He also spoke about the parent rock which releases elements that cannot be assimilated by cultivation and which contributes to that acidity that we observe today.
The FAO representative in Burundi, Mr. Pissang Tchangai Dadémanao, welcomed that platform, specifying that it is intended to be a strategic framework for meetings and dialogue, a forum for exchanges and development of synergies by different actors in the sector. agricultural around agro-ecological practices and soil fertility management, making it possible to fertilize, restore and sustainably protect soils, while taking into account environmental degradation, climate change and low incomes of small family farmers.
He called on all stakeholders to identify themselves, at each level of intervention, and set up a framework to discuss the problem of soil management and propose innovations that respond to the concerns of farmers and use their know-how. to ensure profitability and productivity.
Mr. Dadémanao also indicated that that platform aims to mobilize resources to support the ISABU research protocol, facilitate the availability of dolomite to combat the acidity of Burundian soils, identify agroecological initiatives and manufacture organic fertilizers for large-scale production.
During that process of starting the platform, the participation of a large number of actors, both public and private, with diverse benefits and skills, is essential, he stressed.
The head of cooperation at the European Union delegation in Burundi, Mr. Arnold Jacques de Dixmude, pointed out that to have good results and combat that acidity, it is necessary to make the landscape capable of regenerating itself. Purchasing fertilizers is a necessity, added Mr. Dixmude, suggesting that those fertilizers must be produced for manure or composting, or resort to other agricultural practices that protect the soil such as mulching. He explained that those practices are inexpensive and simple to apply.
According to him, that practice of soil fertilization helps improve the economic situation and also social status. The people who use them themselves become trainers and disseminators of good practices in their communities.