Seed production conference to be held in Bujumbura

Strategies to produce and distribute high quality, durable seeds to vulnerable farmers in Burundi will be discussed by representatives from the government, UN agencies, NGOs and other humanitarian actors operating in the country at a two-day conference due to begin on Thursday in the capital, Bujumbura, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported. "This is a landmark conference which will attempt to establish appropriate mechanisms to reduce the huge discrepancy between the demand for, and the availability of, good quality, disease-tolerant and stable-yielding varieties of seeds in the country," Jean-Alexandre Scaglia, FAO's emergency coordinator in Burundi, said on Tuesday. Agricultural activities and production have been adversely affected by war in Burundi during the last 10 years, FAO said. As a consequence, farmers have had only irregular access to their lands and have been unable to plant crops and to produce food to eat. Meanwhile, as farmers have seen their livelihoods ruined and families become increasingly food-insecure, any food and seed reserves that households may have put aside have now all been consumed, FAO said. "Good quality seeds have become extremely uncommon in Burundi these days, and those that do exist are normally much too expensive for farmers to purchase," Scaglia said. "But poor quality seeds fail to produce the yields required, lead to the eventual deterioration of the land and do very little to improve long-term household food security. Farmers need good quality, affordable seeds to plant." FAO said it was assisting some 200,000 households in Burundi, through the implementation of a number of programmes that focused on household seed multiplication initiatives, rehabilitating the agricultural sector and reducing families' dependency on food aid and increasing their self-reliance. The conference has been organised by the Burundian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, in collaboration with FAO's emergency coordination unit in the country, with support from the Belgian government.