KAYANZA December 6th (ABP)

The Minister of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock officially launched in Kayanza province (north) on Wednesday, December 4, 2019, the Project to Intensify the Agricultural Production and the Reduce Vulnerability in Burundi (PIPARV-B) financed by

the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Food Program (WFP), the OPEP Fund for International Development (OFID) in partnership with the Burundi government.

According to Minister Déo Guide Rurema, that project to intensify agricultural production and reduce vulnerability in Burundi (PIPARV-B) supports the government in its efforts to further increase agricultural production, improve the means of resilience and existence of small producers in the project area. The total cost of the project over six years is estimated at nearly 68,000,000 USD equivalent to about 135 billion Burundi francs, said Minister Rurema. He added that PIPARV-B will work on two components: integrated land management and inclusive community structuring, productivity improvement, valorization and diversification through cooperative development.

That project will take place in twenty communes located in five provinces: Ngozi, Kayanza, Gitega, Karusi and Muyinga. Those communes are little or not affected by other IFAD projects in progress, he explained, adding that the project was set up on the basis of the needs expressed during the consultations with the citizens, hence he is confident that it will succeed. Minister Rurema also said that PIPARV-B was designed by farmers and for farmers. He took the opportunity to inform that the Burundi government is in a development phase and is determined to work with cooperatives already in action and not those set up by the opportunities of a project and which sometimes disappear with the closing of the projects. Here, he explained that the wish of the Burundi government is that the country and the citizens should develop in a sustainable way. The same minister called on the officials involved in the implementation of that project to highlight the active participation of the beneficiaries in the execution of the works and to highlight the synergy and collaboration between the administration and the technical services of the project area for better coordination and ownership of the gains.

IFAD representative in Burundi, Aissa Touré Sarr, said that the added value that PIPARV-B will bring is that this IFAD-funded project is the 13th and that it concerns small producers, especially young people, women and the Batwa community. She expressed confidence that this project will allow them to increase the income that will make them self-sufficient.

At the end of the launching activity of PIPARV-B, the Minister of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, together with various partners in farming sector, made a field trip to the Mandasi marsh in Gatara commune to realize the results of the good practice of marsh exploitation. Then, he made a trip to Matongo commune on the Inamvumvu site where the hybrid maize crop was intensified and finally, he led the participants to the Masabo site in Muruta commune to see the state of the watersheds there.